Panzer of Remnant
by Commander Indrick Boreale
Summary: With Germany losing the War on two fronts, and the girls of RWBY caught in a desperate situation, fate finds interesting ways of preserving what it believes to be valuable. Rated T for mild gore.
1. Chapter 1

They were losing.

Now, that may sound outright dramatic when said aloud, but it was very much so the case. To the West, the Americans and British inched ever closer, and to the East, they were being totally _demolished_ by the Russians. It was December of 1944, and Germany was getting desperate against the onslaught of the Allied powers that were rapidly closing the gap between themselves and Berlin. Germany's resources were dwindling, their forces diminished and spread too thin to fight the war on two fronts. In the intense warfare they were seeing, their Tigers and Panthers were no match for numbers they were facing, they'd lost their aerial superiority, and to the East, the wrath of the Red Army was cutting a bloody swathe towards Berlin...

So, now Germany had their backs against the wall, and were being forced to use every resource at their disposal just to hold back the tides of war a _little_ longer. While it was a futile attempt, they were at least succeeding at giving the Allies a hard time. Now, at one of the Porsche factories, one last tank was about to see it's last mission...

"So... it's not my place to question this decision, sir, but... why isn't this... failure of a tank, being converted before it goes out?" One of the engineers asked the owner of the company he worked for. Ferdinand Porsche simply stood there, caressing his mustache as he gazed upon the failed Tiger that was of his design. It was true, that they should have converted this last hull into the Ferdinand, but to put very simply, there was simply no time, nor was there the resources to do so at this factory's disposal. So, in a desperate attempt to put as many tanks on the field as they could in hopes of turning the tides, this last remaining vk 4501 (P) was going to see deployment.

"Hitler's orders, he doesn't care what we're throwing on the field, as long as it's being put out there. To address your question about the conversion, it's as simple as that we don't have the resources to convert it at this factory, and we don't have the time to do it either. The 4501 will have to be leaving the factory doors within the hour." He said firmly, before turning towards his employee, his brow furrowed. "Quite frankly, were it up to me I'd have it converted, or have the engine improved, but we don't have time for that."

Looking back at the tank, he knew he likely wouldn't be seeing the big beast a second time. Giving it a slight smile, he turned about before stalking off back into the factory...

* * *

An hour was close to passing, now, and the boy was rather anxious. Were anything to happen to the tank before it left the factory, it was coming out on _him._ Needless to say, he wasn't very confident. This tank was plagued with a plethora of mechanical issues, least of which was the track belt. Sighing, he stepped out, lighting a cigarette as he breathed in a modicum of fresh air outside the factory. The Americans would be blasting the factory apart within the week, he reckoned. It was a damn shame, he thought. For a few years, things were great, as they'd successfully restored their country and military, and their economy was booming... Now everything was falling apart. All because the führer just HAD to attack Russia...

Maybe, _maybe_ they could have won, had they not attacked Russia, or if they'd kept their allies in check. Maybe they could have beaten England, given enough time. France had fallen easily, and he'd had a feeling the Brits would have too soon crumpled... but no, Adolf Hitler had given the order to attack Russia, so now here they were with a war on two fronts, that was going poorly on both.

Honestly, it was frustrating. Oh, how he just wished he could go to another world, a world where there wasn't bloody wars between people. Stifling a small laugh, he knew how naive that would sound out loud. War was simply in human nature, that would not change no matter what world he'd be on.

Yawning, he began kicking back as he sat down in a chair beside the factory doors. The crew was supposed to be arriving in about ten minutes. So, until then, he'd just be kicking back and relaxing. Smoking his cigarette and drinking some wine as he basked under a green glow...

 _Wait a minute... green glow?_

Shooting up to his feet, he heard a loud roar of wind from within the factory, green light shooting out from any opening it could find, in this case being the door frame of the garage. A loud bang could be heard from within the factory, as what must have been the strangest sounding explosion ever sent out a rippling shockwave that threw him away from the door, and debris was flung all around.

After about a minute of covering himself from falling debris, he looked back up. The doors to the garage had been blown off their hinges, and papers were flung about in every which way, but that wasn't his concern, oh no... His was much more relevant...

"Oh... I am so dead..." he muttered under his breath. The factory / garage itself was for the most part undamaged, no, what concerned him was what was completely missing. The Tank, the Vk 4501 P, was nowhere to be found...

"Yeeep... So dead."

* * *

Today had only been terrible for team RWBY. To start off they'd been called up to Ozpin's office before they could even eat breakfast, to learn that there was an important mission waiting for them. To further how terrible the day was, it just turned out, that that oh-so-important mission, just so happened to be a huge freaking trap. And to put the cherry on top, they were pinned in a crumbling building with communications down and ammunition spent to almost nothing.

Yeah, they'd had better days.

"Crap! Weiss, I'm out of ammo!" Ruby Rose yelled to her partner, whom had already exhausted herself casting glyphs on the seemingly endless tide of White Fang grunts.

"Does it look like I can help with that, Ruby?!." the Heiress, Weiss Schnee, yelled back over the roar of gunfire blazing around them.

Ruby herself barely understood just how exactly this all happened. One second they were walking down the street, everything peaceful, the next they were pinned in an old building with what's probably well over five hundred guns trained on them. Her cloak had been badly torn up from dozens of stray bullets and nearby explosions, and her aura was nearly nonexistent at this point. Laying back against her pile of rubble she'd been using for cover, she laid her head back and panted from her recent sprint to cover. She didn't notice as her bangs fell back, leaving her face uncovered to the sun above. Beside her, with her back up against a wall, Weiss was trying to do inventory of what little dust she still had, but found it difficult to focus when there were explosions echoing all around her and debris getting flung into her face constantly. Her jacket was about as battered as Ruby's cloak, and her aura was no better.

"I've run out of ammo, too!" Blake yelled, quickly throwing herself back into cover as she produced a shadow clone to take a hit for her. Not a moment later a distant sniper's gun flashed and a bullet blasted the head of her shadow clone to stony bits. Unlike the prior two, her outfit was relatively unscathed, though she couldn't say much more for her aura. Next to her, Yang, Ruby's half-sister, growled as her gauntlet only clicked when she went to fire a shot off at a distant grunt.

"Great, just Great! Dammit, what the hell went so damn wrong?!." the busty blonde roared, crouching back down into cover. Her hair had been shot a few times, leading to her losing about 3, _3_ strands of hair! 3 strands of hair that she wouldn't be able to punish the attacker for! Oh, to say she was livid would be a _Gross_ understatement! And her jacket too she'd had to discard because of just how badly it'd been destroyed. Her eyes were the deepest shade of red Ruby had ever seen, a red so dark it'd make her cloak jealous, and her hair was, quite literally, on fire. She supposed she'd have to thank Yang's semblance for that little effect, not that it seemed to bother the busty brawler.

Groaning to herself, Ruby was rather unsure about all this. She was supposed to be the team's leader, but how the hell was she supposed to lead her team out of this situation? There was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, their backs were against the wall, and they were out of ammo. Eventually, their cover would get destroyed and they'd be left to the mercy of their countless attackers. It was not something she was looking forward too, and the best outcome she could imagine in this situation was them all just getting gunned down where they stood. After all, Blake had said the newer White Fang haven't been all that humane towards their prisoners or hostages.

Shuddering, she shook the thought away, merely focusing on the situation at hand now. They were out gunned, out manned... they were out numbered and out planned, and they were already making their all out stand, however futile it seemed. Looking to the skies, she merely prayed to whatever cruel god may be out there for a reason as to why this would happen to them, or at least a way out revealed to her...

Little did she know, her prayer would be answered.

To her left, a brilliant green light flashed, blasting apart a small area around it, and cleared to reveal a large, metal... thing? In all honesty, she had no idea what to call it. What she was certain of, was that it was big, had a big gun, and would _definitely_ protect them better than their current cover. Coming up with a last minute idea, she called to her partner...

"Weiss! I need you to make us a corridor to that... thingy!" She yelled, to which her partner looked at her bewildered.

"What?!. What the heck is a 'thingy?'" Weiss yelled back, following her leader's finger to the metal beast. "What's that gonna help?!."

"Just trust me, Weiss! Whatever it is, it'll provide better protection than our current cover!" Ruby replied, to which the Heiress merely nodded, before gesturing for the rest of the team to form up.

After a few seconds, Weiss stabbed her rapier into the ground, creating two walls on either side of them leading to the metal machine. She collapsed afterwards, the blonde Brawler Yang Xiao Long catching her before sprinting with the rest of her team down the narrow corridor.

After crossing about a tenth of a kilometer, their corridor falling apart and bullets blasting through the entire way, they'd finally made it into the large machine, quickly finding various hatches they could climb in through. Not a moment later, the entire corridor fell apart, and a massive barrage of bullets came racing through, the girls, closing their eyes as they expected the worst...

 _Ping!_

Upon the first round, they all opened their eyes, realizing that the machine didn't take a scratch. The shot was followed up by another, and another, and another until they could barely hear anything except the pinging of dust bullets off the front of the massive machine. Letting out a sigh of relief in synchronization, they all took in the insides of the vehicle they were in. The insides weren't very spacious, but they supposed their situation could be worse. There were racks around them, all holding what looked like the backs of large bullets. Some small words were engraved upon the back of each, what mainly stuck out being the letters 'HE', 'AP', and 'APCR'. There were a few manuals lying around, all of which read out the words "Panzerkampfwagon vk 4501 P, Tiger Porsche Prototype." Sitting back for a moment, Ruby decided she'd take a moment to calm herself. Her heart was beating faster than ever, and she sweating, "like a whore in a church" as her uncle Qrow had always said. Wiping her brow she picked up a manual and looked back to her team...

"Okay... despite all the gunfire, I don't think they'll be hurting us, not for awhile at least, while we're in here... So!" Ruby said, looking down at her teammates and towards the various areas of the vehicle. "This is a vehicle, right? It got's a gun, what looks like a steering wheel, and a bunch of ammunition, I say we use it!" Ruby said, pumping her fist in the air... and subsequently banging it against the top of the hatch above her, slightly bruising her knuckles. She earned a small chuckle out of Yang, and a curious look from Weiss and Blake. She gestured towards Weiss, currently in the driver's seat, or at least what looked like it, that she'd probably be driving, towards Blake to man the gun, and towards Yang to act as the loader. With a wide grin, she pumped her fist before cheering to her team.

"Alright, you guys all know what we gotta do! Now leeeeeeets Go!" she yelled, earning a 'Yeah!' from Yang and only silence from Weiss and Blake...

"Ummm... Ruby?" Blake asked. "How do we... y'know... operate this thing?"

"Oh... well... uh... I... I don't know..." the reaper admitted, before casting her gaze down in embarrassment. The heiress merely face palmed before looking around, and picking up a manual...

"Okay... Since none of us know what we're doing, why don't we, y'know, read the manuals?" she offered, earning small 'ooh's from everyone present. Reaching down and picking up the manuals for the others and distributing them to Yang and Blake, they all began to read while under fire from all sides.

They were glad the White Fang seemed reluctant to close the distance, though they were rather certain that either wouldn't last much longer, or they were bringing in heavier weapons. In either case, reading through the manuals took longer than they would have liked, taking up a good twenty minutes of their time, reading about their respective roles and Yang practicing with loading the shells. Eventually, it was time to start.

Ruby had decided that, since she was the leader of the team, she'd be commander of the "Panzer" as the manual had called it. A Vk 4501 P, or, as Ruby had come to find it easier to say, a Tiger Porsche. She didn't quite know how well it'd perform, but she knew that it mounted great armor, and had a big and powerful main gun. Giving a small thumbs up to Weiss, the girl in white thumbed the engine ignition, and pressed her foot down on the pedal. Immediately, the tank began to jerk into motion as it's engine roared to life. Putting her head up into the "commander's cupola," she looked on at the gathering of White Fang goons all still shooting at them from all sides.

It brought a smile to her face, seeing that now they could fight again. Looking down at all her friends once more, she could see the same thought was going through their heads as well. Dropping her hand down to where Yang could see it, Ruby signaled for her to load an HE shell, and yelled down to Blake where she wanted to fire...

"Blake, I need you to fire right in the middle of that large group of bad guys!"

"Ruby, will you ever stop calling whatever we're going against 'the bad guys'?"

"Nope! Now get ready to fire!" Ruby happily yelled back, earning a chuckle from the older girl. It took about 8 and a half seconds to load the round, courtesy of Yang having _just_ learned how exactly to do it, and the movements still being awkward to her...

"Ready..." Ruby stated, looking out her cupola as the gun lined up with the large group of enemies.

"Steady..." Ruby said, looking down at Weiss as she looked impatient as hell to move...

"FIRE!"

* * *

The sound was unlike anything they'd heard. A sharp and loud crack echoed through the air as the High Explosive shell flew out from the tank's barrel, and impacted right between the mass of White Fang, some setting up anti-armor rockets. They'd never get the chance, as not even a nanosecond later, the round exploded violently within the mass of infantry, consuming them all in a damning explosion and tearing all unlucky to be caught to charred ribbons. Blake's eyes widened, seeing just how devastating the gun was, before hearing Ruby yell down to Weiss.

"Weiss! Full Speed Ahead!" Ruby yelled dramatically, and waited for the Panzer to go flying forward...

Aaaaand was sorely disappointed as she learned that the tank only had a top speed of around 28 km/ph. Still, they were going markedly faster than most normal people could jog. The remaining White Fang still attempted to shoot at it from it's side, but were then too blown aside from another shell of the Tiger. The fools were too tightly bunched together, Ruby thought, as a single shell must have killed at least thirty or more of them. She heard the screams of the wounded silenced as her Panzer crushed them to a bloody pulp under it's treads. the sound sent shivers down Ruby's back, never actually having killed another person before... but at this point, it was them, or her team.

The White Fang desperately shot at the Porsche Tiger from all sides, finding no penetration anywhere they fired. Some would get the idea to run, they'd be the wise ones as within just a little under two minutes, well over 350 White Fang terrorists were reduced to mere tatters and chunks of once-faunas, and at least one hundred more lie dying in the demolished earth. The crew of the tank shuddered, horrified at what devastation they'd wrought with this machine of war with only ten shots. Not wanting to dwell on their massacre, they swiftly booked it out of there, making a B-line back towards Beacon...

* * *

 **A/N**

 **Oi, so... This is my first time writing combat is a style like this, and I dunno, but I'd say, since I couldn't find any other good examples that it went... moderately well.**

 **As always, constructive criticism is always appreciated, Please Leave a review if you fancy it REALLY helps me out.**

 **Commander Indrick Boreale, Signing off.**


	2. Rommel's Warriors

**DISCLAIMER:**

 **This story in no way shape or form paints the Third Reich in a biased way. The reason I'm actually writing this story is 1. because I just really love tanks, and I like RWBY, and 2. because I'm a HUGE history buff, especially on WWII. That being said, if anyone sees that one guy who had appeared is wearing a swastika, yes, he is, but remember that that is simply part of HIS uniform. That being said, the outfits that RWBY receive during this chapter do not share that aspect of the uniform, instead replacing it with their own insignia.**

 **Just something I thought I'd put out there before someone gets the wrong idea and screams over the internet that I'm a Neo-Nazi. Now that that's out of the way, let's get on with the story...**

* * *

It had been several hours now since they'd blasted their way out of their once dire situation, and still they were a very, very long way away from Beacon. Sure, they could maybe cross about 28 to 32 kilometers in an hour, but that still made their journey easily three days. It would have been an easy journey if it weren't for the plethora of mechanical issues it had...

"Crap! Weiss, halt the Panzer, the tracks are digging into the dirt again!" Ruby called down to her partner, who immediately halted the tank before taking her hands off the wheel and sitting back for a moment and wiping her brow. They were still a good 80 kilometers away from the nearest town, and here they had to take yet _another_ stop to halt the tank, reverse it, and go around on ground that only looked more solid than what they were currently on.

Ruby several times had to slap herself across the face to keep herself from falling asleep. Her team were quick to complain at how loud the tank was, or how bumpy the ride was on their current terrain, but Ruby herself was getting drowsy from it. Something about it just... relaxed her. She was comfortable, despite the lack of padding on the seats, the engine, despite being however loud, was oddly relaxing to focus on, and the bumpiness of the ride really didn't bother her.

It took about two or three moments, but Weiss was finally able to get the Porsche Tiger out of the dirt and get it moving back onward toward the town. For another two hours they drove on, only making it 50 kilometers due to the engine failing twice during operation and Ruby and Yang having to step out to fix it. Night was falling, and it'd become difficult to see, initially, though Weiss, upon looking back through the manual, found the headlights and turned them on. So they were on their way once more...

* * *

Ruby roared in frustration, punching the side of the tank. The engine needed it's spark plugs replaced, and just what didn't they have on the tank? Replacement spark plugs. She sighed at the hopelessness of the situation, as they just HAD to break down in some way or another just 2 kilometers from their destination. Ruby looked back up at the tank. She didn't so much dislike the big beast, in fact she'd quickly developed a fondness for it, but that didn't change the fact that almost all the materials in it's engine were of low quality, and that it had an iffy belt system. It was a quirky beast, one with shortcomings she planned to rectify as soon as they'd gotten to town.

"Hey, Ruby? At least we can still use the turret... somehow. The engine is a hybrid electric and diesel engine, so it may be electricity that's letting it move but... I dunno." Blake said, swiveling the turret back and fourth to prove her point. This didn't much comfort Ruby, as they were still dead in the water, and still only two kilometers from their destination, too. Looking up and around, she could make out the lights of the town down the road, and the people in the streets. Guards stood at the ready to meet any Grimm that might try them, and just a bit further down the road into the town she could see the mechanic, too. She was unsure if the place was big enough to accommodate their current vehicle, but if they could...

Exactly at that moment Ruby had gotten her idea, and pulled out one of the Tank's spark plugs and handed it to Weiss...

"Weiss, I need you to take this and run up to the town. Get the mechanic, show him the spark plug. If he doesn't have any like it, we can at least hope he'll have something strong enough to move the Tiger." Ruby swiftly ordered, to which her partner nodded, taking the spark plug and running off towards the town. The night was very dark, and they could barely, just barely see much in front of them, though the town they could easily see, it's lights bright enough to make them need to squint somewhat to see clearly. Their tank was where the light of the town didn't reach, just a little too far to be seen from the town.

With the Heiress on her way, that left the rest of RBY alone in the dark, not that it bothered Blake. Blake had stayed on the gun, her natural night vision leading her to be the best gunner for the situation, and Yang simply sat next to the raven haired faunas, messing with the girl's ears every now and then as the amber eyed girl didn't seem to mind. Yang herself had already loaded in another 88mm HE round, so found herself rather bored in waiting. Ruby stood on top of the tank's turret, surveying the area to the best of her rather limited current ability. She'd deployed her scythe, and was merely lying in wait for any attack the Grimm might make in the dark...

It wasn't even five minutes before her worries were realized. From down in the turret, she heard Blake yell up at her...

"Ruby, we've got several dozen Beowulves charging at us from multiple directions! Your orders?" Blake yelled up at her, the reaper merely gazed off in the direction the gun was pointed before responding.

"Blake, fire at will!" she screamed back, the second half of her words being lost under the boom of the following explosion. She still could not see the enemy, but the explosion had somewhat lit up the area, even if only for a moment. It was easy to see why Blake was so worried about them, as the light revealed a massive horde of beowulves charging at them, not just a few. Preparing her scythe, she readied her stance as the crack of the gun firing resounded once more accompanied by another boom.

The horde inched ever closer, only being somewhat slowed by the blasting of the Tiger's main gun. Some foliage caught fire, which quickly spread, revealing what exactly they were fighting. Ruby wasn't very concerned about the panzer, no, it'd easily survive whatever mere beowulves could throw at it, she was worried about herself and her team. They'd already fired twelve rounds, leaving them with only 56 shells left in the ammo racks. There was one alpha hanging at the back, but it didn't seem intent on moving just yet. Ruby noted that it was probably waiting for it's younger brethren to bog down the tank.

 _'This is bad!'_ Ruby thought, noting that they simply weren't firing fast enough to make enough of a difference to stop them from reaching the tank. It was only a moment later, that a the gun fired and the first Beowulf jumped into range. It instantly met it's end by the scythe of the young reaper, decapitating the beast and letting the head fly past her as the body slumped against the side of the tank. Spinning about and holding her scythe at an angle, she effortlessly bisected another two beowulves and decapitated a third, before lunging out with the blade of _Crescent Rose_ extended outwards to impale a Beowulf through the face.

The cycle carried on for several minutes, with Ruby cursing under her breath that Weiss should have been back by now. Beowulves would meet their end at her blade, and the earth would be shook by big, explosive bullets. During the attack, Ruby had only been able to herself from attacks so long, not being able to move off the top of the tank she'd taken scores of hits, her Aura dipping into dangerous levels.

After what seemed an eternity, the horde finally had dissipated, revealing only the Alpha left. The Alpha had stealthily closed the distance, and was ready to pounce and finish off the Rose from behind. Ruby, having realized something was off, swiftly turned around at the sound of a blood-chilling roar as the Wolf had pounced at her. Raising her scythe to block the blow, she knew she'd still get badly wounded from such a blow, and braced herself for the inevitable...

 _Bang!_

The blow never came, as Ruby opened her eyes, she saw the wulf fall limply to the side, a large hole blasted through it's right eye.

Swiftly, Ruby threw herself around to see her savior, but noticed something odd. There was Weiss, and a bewildered mechanic to boot, but the shooter was someone else entirely. An older man, perhaps in his early 50's and standing at an average height was dressed in what looked to be a gray military uniform of a general, a stylized eagle holding a swastika within a ring on the right side of his chest, and over his heart there were several military honors. A stylized cross was displayed over his sternum and on his head he wore a capped visor with the same insignia on it as was on the right side of his chest. In one hand he held a handgun, it's clip oddly enough located in front of the handle as opposed to how it's normally located inside of it. He didn't say a word, merely waving his hand to the her, getting a small wave in response. Weiss walked up with the mechanic, whom was holding in his hands a large toolbox, and in his other hands spark plugs. And they were the same as on the tank, too! Giddy with joy, Ruby hopped down from on top of the tank before approaching her teammate and the mechanic.

"Oh my gosh, he actually had the exact same spark plugs?!." Ruby swiftly said, before looking to the mechanic.

"Yeah, don't know how they got there, though. Sure as hell know I hadn't seen em on my work bench before tonight, but there they were." the large man said, handing the plugs over to the red clad girl. "oh, and by the way, that uhhh... Panzer, right? Since it's a panzer, and it's yours, you're gonna wanna talk to this gentleman over there, in the military uniform."

Weiss decided to chip in, too. "He's right, this guy claims to know about the Panzer, and we don't know anything. We'd be fools to disregard him." Ruby looked to her partner, and nodded, fitting the last plugs into the engine.

It only took about two minutes to get the tank moving again, this time with two more passengers. The tank clattered on unhindered for the remainder of the trip, and soon enough rolled into town. Everyone in the town gawked at the appearance of the massive vehicle, to which one small child pointed, yelling excitedly while jumping up and down and pointing at their tank, saying something along the lines of "look! A Panzer! A Panzer!"

Pulling up into the garage, taking up the entire space, they all exited the tank, with all of team RWBY leaving the mechanic with the manuals and following the officer looking man to the small house the townsfolk had gifted him. It was a small, but cozy house, with a large table in the middle of the main room with maps and various letters and the sort scattered about across it. The man had pulled up several seats for the girls on one side of the table, and pulled up a seat for himself on the other. They happily took the seats provided, thanking him before setting their weapons down beside them. The man before them took off his hat, setting it on the table before taking a seat himself. His head was shaved, it much the same way one would expect from a high ranking general of a military. The man smiled, looking at the four girls before deciding to start.

"Well, I'm sure you're all curious as to who and what I am, nein?" The man started, his voice firm, yet friendly. His statement was met with several nods. Chuckling slightly to himself, he set both his hands down on the table, bringing them together over a map of the area. "I am Field Marshal Rommel. I am, or at least, was, a high ranking member of the Third Reich. Your Panzer, the vk 4501 P, or Tiger Porsche, if I'm not mistaken? It came here in much the same manner I did, did it not?"

"That depends." Ruby said. "How did you show up here?"

"I was about to commit suicide, after failed assassins of the Führer had mentioned my name under interrogations. However, as I was about to take the poison two months ago, a green light, seemingly out of nowhere, enveloped the room. Not a moment later, I was lying in the middle of this forest, my poison nowhere to be found. It has been strange, I can say, adapting to this new world you people call 'Remnant', but I've managed... however, I'd imagine you're more interested in learning about your panzer, nein?" The Field Marshal said, shocking the girls with how casual he was with the situation he was in. Shaking the though from their heads, they nodded in affirmation to the man.

"Your Panzer, or, tank, as most not in Germany seem so keen as to call them, is the failed Porsche prototype of the Panzerkampfwagen VI requested by the führer in 1942, not that that date would hold any meaning here. I believe you already can see why it's failed." Rommel chuckled. "Nevertheless, here you have resources at your disposal so that you can improve upon its shortcomings... Not that it matters right now. You four don't even know the slightest thing about your tank aside from the basics, do you? Yes yes yes, perhaps you know how to drive and shoot to a... basic, degree, but do you even know how to best apply your Panzer in a situation, the best battlefield role of your tank, or how to effectively repair it?" His questions were all met with silence, which led him to sigh in turn. These girls didn't know the slightest thing about the use and application of what they had, though he couldn't exactly blame them. In either case, he knew what he had to do...

"OKAY!" he said sharply. "I want you all to rest up for the night in the room to your left," he said, gesturing to the room where a few mattresses waited, "for tomorrow, I shall be teaching you all how to effectively utilize the vehicle at your disposal. Frauen, du bist entlassen." He finished, before walking upstairs to his own room. The four of them merely looked confused, not understanding the last part of his lecture but kinda understanding at the same time.

* * *

Sleep came easily, given how tired they were. They wondered how the man, this Field Marshal Rommel, could help them operate this Panzer (Ruby refused to simply call it a tank, stating that "panzer" was just so much cooler). They didn't even know how long they slept, only that when they woke up the sun was already halfway up the skies. Doing their small morning routines, they all took a few minutes to individually shower and brush their teeth before walking out of their room to be greeted to the smell of fresh bread, honey, eggs, cheese, pork, and coffee. Looking around, they all saw plates on the table with such things on them, and in the coffee's case, in mugs beside the plates.

Looking back and forth, they saw no trace that Rommel was there besides the plates, so they assumed he must be out on the town at the moment. Sitting at the table, they all began to briskly eat their meals, chatting aimlessly to pass the time as they ate. They were still far, far away from Beacon, being still roughly 1936 kilometers away. It didn't matter, they supposed. As soon as they could they'd send a message over to Ozpin that they were fine... that is, once they got out of the jamming range. Their scroll communications were still jammed, meaning that no time soon would they be speaking with their headmaster.

They'd only finished their meals when the door swung open, revealing Rommel, whom himself was holding a cup of coffee too. He looked on at the girls with a blank stare, only giving them each a once over, before he gestured with his free hand for them to follow. Team RWBY decided it'd be best to follow the man, and walked out the door behind him.

The town was small, basic, but they could easily see it was well defended. The town was enclosed on all sides save for two openings by hills obviously made by man, with trenches and sandbag emplacements erected atop the mounds. Barbed wire surrounded the base of the mounds and from a quick glance Ruby's eyes had been able to make out what looked like mines when she'd first entered the town. Judging by how differently the town was defended compared to other ones in the area, they had an inkling feeling that this Rommel guy was partially responsible for the town's defenses.

They were walking along the road, taking a different one than they'd taken in their Tiger. Eventually, Rommel led them into a small shop with large cabinets and mirrors against the walls, an ironing board, ans several suits displayed. It was clear that they'd just entered the tailor's shop, and that they'd be getting new outfits... fitting, as their current outfits were getting rather uncomfortable in their damaged states. The tailor, a man who they'd guess was maybe in his late fifties, merely smiled to the Field Marshal as he held up a sketch of what he wanted made for the four girls. First was a gray, button up, long sleeved and collared shirt, followed by a black or dark gray field jacket with epaulets and a badge at the front of the collar on the jackets. The same badge was found on the sketch of the uniform as was seen on the right side of Rommel's, except the ring held by the eagle was blank. He also had a sketch for a similar hat, though it also said it was only for Ruby as she was the tank commander. Next were trousers, basic black ones with several pockets not much different than what he himself was currently wearing, and black combat boots.

"Damen." Rommel started, "Today, you'll be leaving those tattered uniforms behind. Clothes make the man, as the saying goes, and this panzer is yours. If you're going to be a Panzer vk 4501 p crew, you might as well look the part, nein?" The girls looked to each other, before nodding in unison. Rommel showed off a toothy smile, before looking to the tailor...

"Na dann, lass uns anfangen!"

* * *

It was midday by the time they were fully outfitted, having filled out their respective insignia on the blank parts of the badge they now each wore. Ruby quickly became fond of the field visor she'd received, and each had matching badges in design on their collars, those reading out their initials on the right, and the name they'd yet to agree upon for the tank on the left. Until they'd decided upon a name, they were not displaying a badge on that side. The mechanic and his team had yet to finish their modifications upon the Tiger, so for now, they merely had to listen and learn from the kind Field Marshal who was teaching them.

Right now, they had a simple set up. The loading system of the Porsche Tiger had been recreated in a model where they could effectively practice taking the shells out of the rack and pushing it through to where it could be fired. So far, they'd all trained for about an hour on it, learning how to reload efficiently in the case that their designated loader be incapacitated. Though, while they all learned how to effectively load the gun, Yang had to practice most with it, as she was the designated loader. She'd managed to cut down her reloading time with the 88mm shell from 8.5 seconds down to a 7.6 second average. Though, during that time, from lifting and pushing so many shells through, her arms she found at the end to be sore as hell, like she'd just finished pushing out a new max on her bench press.

Ruby herself was getting real tired of lifting shells and pushing them through. Her arms hurt like hell, and the shells, while not initially too heavy, now felt like she was lifting big bags of bricks. She saw that Blake and Weiss weren't doing much better, and that all of them were visibly sweating, though Yang the least of them. Rommel had commented that the decision of making Yang the loader was evidently the wisest, and commended Ruby for initially picking her out as the loader.

Given a few hours, they were all sitting at a table, with Rommel educating them on proper battlefield tactics and etiquette (which Ruby didn't quite fully understand, given the difference between a battlefield and a ballroom). Weiss, as they'd all expected, was taking detailed notes on Rommel's current subject, that being how to properly fight when outnumbered. Though while Weiss busied herself taking notes, Ruby had found it easy to listen and learn from the man in front of her. It was obvious he'd told the truth about his knowledge of proper tank usage.

Yang struggled to grasp many of the concepts presented before her about the tactics and strategies, though Rommel had simply told her not to worry to much about it. After all, her job was just to dump the used shells and load new ones in. Blake understood much of it, but noted that she'd probably only remember what to shoot, when to shoot it past the night. Weiss's notes were comprehensive and in detail, though Rommel had told her that such notes were unnecessary as he'd already written a comprehensive and in depth book on the contemporary tactics of armored warfare. Ruby had shown a remarkable comprehension for the tactics and strategies of armored warfare, and even had noted several points before the Field Marshal had even gotten to them.

There was little way currently to practice driving and shooting skills while the tank was undergoing modification and upgrades, so that left Weiss and Blake untrained in their respective roles for the day. Despite the idea of being in a big, armored war machine with a massive gun that utterly wrecked crap weighing in at 57,000 kilograms being such a new concept to them, they were eager to learn how to handle their big bad Tiger Porsche.

* * *

The day was finally coming to an end over the town (of which they later learned the name was "Wulften"), and RWBY were now laying exhausted, mostly mentally, from their training with Rommel. With their training for the day done, the four girls decided to turn in for the day, but not before visiting their tank...

"So... We have to name it, don't we?" Blake asked, looking to her friends whom she could see all had the same thing on their mind. They all had ideas, but nobody was quite sure on an appropriate name, and they already put down the law that anything coming from Yang would be shot down. After her proposal to name their Bullhead, her ability to name anything the team used had been brutally revoked... The _Phallic Blaster_ was no name for a bullhead...

"How about..." Weiss began, "The Blade? I mean, it's short, and it emphasizes on it's ability to attack." Blake, however, was quick to counter Weiss's claim.

"If we were naming it based on it's ability to attack, we shouldn't give it a name more fitting for an assault gun. I say... Bulwark." Blake stated, earning a curious look from her white haired counterpart.

"Why Bulwark?"

"Well..." Ruby now chimed in, "it does have 200 millimeters of frontal armor... though it's no Maus we're using, here."

"Well then," Blake started. "Why don't you, Ruby, name this tank?"

She thought for a moment, remembering Rommel had said something to her when she came in to see the tank earlier, though she believed what he said was directed at the tank rather than her...

"What about... Der Verteidiger?"

"What's that supposed to translate to?" Weiss asked, an even more confused look on her face.

"Well... it, ah... it means, uhh-"

"It means," came a voice from behind them, "'The Defender', in your language. And good job on picking up that I meant the tank earlier, Rose." Ruby's cheeks reddened from the sudden compliment, merely nodding her head in affirmation.

"The Defender... huh." Blake said, trying the name on her tongue for a moment before nodding her head. Weiss followed suit quickly thereafter, and Yang merely shrugged.

"Long as it sounds cool." the eldest of the two sisters said.

Rommel smiled slightly. "Der Verteidiger sollte es dann sein. Tuck in for the night, ladies, I shall see to the items relevant to the naming of this panzer." He said, smiling kindly at the four girls as they nodded and ran off.

* * *

Rommel stood at the table in the town hall with the mayor and the chief of defense. Scouts had reported the White Fang mobilizing for another attack, and Rommel intended to quickly and efficiently destroy these attackers. But he wouldn't need the Panzer for this, no, he'd already seen to the town being quite well enough defended to make a mockery of this coming assault...

"Erwin..." came the voice of the mayor, a tall and skinny man named Lutolf Baker. "Are we ready for this attack? We've produced the equipment you told us to, both the 7.5 cm IG 37 and the 8.8 cm Flak 18-36, infantry based equipment too, but..."

"If all equipment is in place and the troops have been training as they should have, then these terrorists are in way over their head. Ich bin fast beleidigt, dass das alles ist, was sie gesendet haben. Nur ein paar Dutzend Fußsoldaten und keine einzige schwere Waffe. Erbärmlich." Erwin Rommel swiftly cut the mayor off, stating what was in his own language swiftly, scoffing at the end. Looking to the Chief of Defense, he patted the man on the shoulder and gave a simple order to the man.

"Rouse the troops at rest, I want these törichte terroristen to taste an utter, absolutely crushing defeat at our hands tonight.


	3. A Fight, A Fight!

**So, anyone ready for a Tank Battle?**

* * *

The violent, deafening roar of guns woke the girls of RWBY up in a mess of limbs, panicked and confused. After all falling to the floor, they quickly untangled themselves from each other and briskly threw redressed out of their pajamas and into their new outfits. Ruby, after throwing on her hat, holstered the handgun that the Field Marshal had given her, a "Mauser C96" as he'd called it, and rushed out the door with her team.

On the street, they saw a few townsfolk in the streets, calmly going about their business despite the roar of guns. Confused, Ruby and her team looked left and right for any signs of combat, any sign that they were being attacked, but found nothing, nothing except the blazing guns nearby. The scene was peaceful, like the people there didn't even know that nearby, probably just over the defenses, a battle was being waged! Approaching one of the townsfolk, whom was carrying a few stacks of wood through the street, Ruby decided she'd do the talking herself.

"Ah, excuse me, sir?" She said somewhat meekly, gaining the man's attention. "I was wondering, what exactly is going on?"

"Huh? Oh, you must mean the gunfire. Yeah, that's become rather common of late. Rommel's been here about two months, but the White Fang have been attacking for about three. Our defenses were about to fail when he showed up, turned our situation around, showed our guards how to properly fight, got our smithies and tailors working overtime to make e'm proper gear and had a bunch of our field workers build up those mounds. Those Terrorists attack three, sometimes four times a week, and have always left in tatters. Just don't worry about it, the Field Marshal and his men will crush these guys, like they always do." Nodding, Ruby looked to her team, who themselves seemed to have calmed down a bit. Looking back to the man and quickly asking for directions, he nodded his head to some steps going up to the top of the mound.

Reaching the base of the mounds, they soon saw several artillery pieces, and a lot of 88mm rounds waiting to be used on palettes. The men and women using them wore military uniforms that looked similar to theirs, except theirs were more fitting for that of an infantry man rather than a tank operator. Their uniforms matched the look of the "German" soldiers exactly as what Rommel had shown them in his sketch book, helmet and all except instead of swastikas they all had the flag of their settlement proudly displayed, that being of a twin-headed wolf. Their guns were much the same, almost as though the development of the Field Marshal's military was copied and pasted from military unto town.

Climbing up the steps of the large mounds, they saw what must have been two interior levels, all with cement halls like they were bunkers that snaked into the mounds. Ruby noted the defenses, stating that the defenses were even sturdier than she'd initially thought. Finally, upon reaching the top they could see that they'd entered a sort of trench network, only more sophisticated than those seen in the Great War. They could see a proper, working drainage system, several hatches that'd lead into the lower levels, and above them a camouflage net hung over the trenches and their sandbag barriers. Looking around some more, they spotted Rommel's side down the trench, leaning over a table and talking to... someone.

Going at a brisk jog down the trench line, making sure not to bump into any of the town's defenders, they quickly reached the Field Marshal, who only looked at them with some mild surprise...

"Ah, guten morgen. The gunfire didn't wake you up, did it?" he said, a slight chuckle following his question. Looking to the woman standing at the other side of the table, he merely nodded his head, before pointing to a spot on the map laid out across the table. The woman nodded, before delivering a crisp salute and jogging off back down the trench line.

"That was Lieutenant Mira, commanding officer up here when I'm not present. I expect you girls to show her the utmost respect, isd das klar?" he received a full nod from the girls before returning his attention to the map. The map had been marked up, highlighting several different locations with markings they did not understand yet. It was clear that this attack must have been expected, so they chose not to worry about it, content with focusing their attention on Rommel and back to the trench line...

"Brauchst du etwas, meine Damen?" the Field Marshal said, catching them off guard for a moment. Looking back to the older man, they didn't quite know what he'd said, but had a slight idea.

"O-oh! No, we just, ah... we wanted to know if there was any way we could... y'know... hep out..." Ruby said hesitantly, before looking back to her team. A nod of confirmation assured her that she did indeed speak for all of them, before looking back to Rommel who was looking at her quizzically.

"I do not see how you could assist with this fight. Nor do I see any reason for you to do so. These fools are being beaten back and cut down at every turn, so there's really no reason for any of you four to get involved. Besides, I don't think any of you are trained to command things such as this, nein?" None of the girls responded, merely looking somewhat blankly at him before slowly nodding.

"Look, if you want to learn something right now, observe the battle, the tactics being employed." He said quickly, getting an equally brisk nod once more from RWBY, before they all went over to the edge of the trenches and looked over.

To say the White Fang's attack was sloppy would be an understatement. They seemingly just rushed headlong towards the defenses, and were using craters and fallen trees for cover against the bullets raining down on them. They saw about two dozen bodies lying in the dirt, unmoving, and another seven or so laying down beside their dead comrades in critical condition, being their stomachs or chests blown open, dismemberment, or they just had many bullet wounds. It was a grisly scene to the girls, that much was certain, one they weren't totally used to yet.

Weiss emptied her stomach of what little was still there in a trash can, with Blake only being phased in the sense that misguided brothers and sisters were wasting their lives attacking this town. Yang only paled somewhat at all the blood shed across the scene in front of her, and Ruby stared onwards, eyes widened in horror. _'Is this the reality of war?'_ She thought solemnly, taking in every small detail of the... massacre.

"It is beautiful, in a sad and dark way." Rommel said from behind them, earning all the girls' attention and almost their ire too. "An artist of my world, though not my generation, Michelangelo, was once asked how he sculpted so well. His response was along the lines of simply removing everything unnecessary."

The girls were silent for a moment, merely looking out on the field where faunas died in the dozens.

"In that way this scene is beautiful. It is war. It is man against man. It is life, and death." Slowly, the girls nodded. The man had some point, in a grim way, but that didn't change the fact that it was all unnecessary...

"But... why?" Ruby asked. "Why attack here? Why make such a situation here?"

"I cannot give you the reason that these terrorists attack for I do not know it. I could wager a guess and say it is because the mines of this town are so rich, but there could be other reasons such as strategic value in the region. In any case, they're attacking us, so we fight back."

Blake was appalled not by the man or any of his actions, but that her own people were stopping to such low levels. Had it not been for the Field Marshal, this town would not have put up much resistance, and there were plenty of faunas in the town, too. The White Fang weren't punching up in this case, against people who oppress them, they were punching down on people they knew they could overpower... it was not something she'd stand idly by and watch happen, this injustice.

"Ruby..." Blake called to her leader, who turned around to see her raven haired friend. The look on Blake's face was stony and firm, a look Ruby knew all to well from her. "These unprovoked assaults cannot go unanswered. We must find out what the White Fang want and stop them here!" She boldly proclaimed. The reaper nodded firmly in agreement, knowing well that they'd be neglecting their duty as huntresses in training if they were to ignore this. Returning her gaze to the Rommel, she spoke with determination in her voice.

"Field Marshal, we are huntresses in training. It is our sworn duty to fight injustice wherever it may be, and today it is here. We must-"

"Must do what? Get in a Panzer you know next to nothing about and wage a 1 tank war against who knows how many terrorists, who have heavy weapons? You may be skilled individual fighters, that much is not in question, but none of you know the first thing about truly operating your vehicle. Yes, you can drive and shoot, but there's much more to using a tank than simply driving and shooting. Until you're all properly trained, which, if fortune favors us will be within a month, maybe two, that tank will not be leaving the training grounds." The Field Marshal countered swiftly, cutting Ruby off and giving them all a stony and stern look. "You want to do well, I can understand and respect that, but running out and getting yourselves killed won't do any good for us, or for you. You'll get the chance to fight, but not today."

His statement to back up the first was met with slow, reluctant nods from the girls. Sighing, he waved them off, looking back down at the planning board in front of him as the girls ran off. The modifications on the tank would be done by today, of that being improved modules and the sort. With this their tank wouldn't break down at the worst of times anymore, or at least that was the thought. The engine was being improved and the tracks modified slightly to prevent them from digging into the dirt so much. Still, he was unsure whether or not it'd ultimately live up to the standards the grease monkeys said it would.

* * *

They'd left the defenses with a strange feeling. Sure, they'd fought the white fang on several occasions, last being when they'd blasted them apart in the shantytown, before that when the White Fang partnered with Torchwick at the docks, but this battlefield was quite obviously different. Their tank was their only hope at winning this fight, and they weren't anywhere close to mastery with it yet. The Field Marshal was right, but that didn't change the fact that while evil was making itself known, here they were training, just training. It was irritating, to say the least.

The garage was a short distance away, though they were told that Der Verteidiger wouldn't be finished until the afternoon around 12:30. Until then, there wasn't much they could do besides wander the town and fix their uniforms, previously a bit haphazardly affixed from being thrown on so quickly. The town wasn't very large, though to say it was small would be a mistake. In the center stood the town hall, it was fortified with concrete pillboxes, field guns, machine guns, and sandbag emplacements, along with barbed wire lining the bases of the gun emplacements. With the mines chugging out material as quickly as they were, they could see heavy machinery laying down an actual road instead of the previous gravel pathway. They'd very soon realized that the town was set up as a sort of grid, and that the areas they'd previously been in were only the outskirts of the town. From the center outward the people were renovating, instead of structures of iron and wood they were now laying down actual foundations, utilizing bricks, mortar, cement, steel, wood and insulation in the buildings.

"I can't help but get a sense of deja vu, here." Weiss stated to nobody in particular. "This town looks akin to old atlesian towns, similar architecture and all... though this is all markedly more advanced."

"Yeah... I think I can see that." Blake said, looking around to see the people busying themselves with their work. "Though I doubt they'd be even half this prosperous without the Field Marshal. After all, they said they were about to capitulate under the attacks until he showed up, and you can't develop a settlement when constantly being raided of your resources."

Ruby herself was only listening to their conversation with half an ear, more interested in analyzing the terrain, making note of how the town was set up. It was obviously optimized for a stiff defense, with all the locational opportunities for a defender to ambush or hold the line. Rommel had certainly worked quickly, whipping the town into shape.

* * *

After wandering the town for about thirty minutes, they found themselves in front of a rather large garage. They could hear machinery on the inside, what sounded like welding, among other sounds. Upon entering the garage, they saw one thing that had them somewhat confused. Here stood several more men, clad similarly to Rommel if a bit less decorated, and they all were working on another tank. Ruby quickly shook off her momentary surprise, though couldn't shake the thought of how long things from Rommel's world must have been falling into theirs.

The tank Weiss had pointed out was a Panther ausf. G, and looked to be under modification. The original engine had been taken out and was seemingly under examination from some of the town's mechanics. The men dressed akin to the Field Marshal also seemed to share his language, and looked to be conversing freely among themselves as they worked on their tank. After a few seconds of silent observation, they saw the men look over in their direction, though were caught completely off guard when they all rushed to the front of the tank, lined up shoulder to shoulder and gave a crisp salute. Ruby had begun to stutter when she'd suddenly felt a firm grip on her shoulder.

"Nein, nein. They do not salute you, Rose. They salute me." Came a firm voice. They looked back to see the very Field Marshal himself had walked up on them without them noticing. "Crew, are the improvements finished?"

"Ja, Herr Kommandant! Die Module wurden mit dieser neuen Technologie verbessert und sollten weitaus besser sein als das Original." One said, earning a large grin from the field marshal.

"Wunderbar! Well test out the new modules on the range later, for now-" The man spoke, only to be cut off by a loud boom, accompanied by several loud screams.

"Was zur Hölle war das?!." Rommel yelled, to be met with one of the town guard bursting through the door to the garage.

"Commander Rommel! Intelligence on enemy forces was wrong, they have Panzers!" The man yelled, being cut off by another loud boom.

"Verdammt! Crew, steig auf! Mädchen, zu den Zinnen jetzt! Wir müssen wissen, was wir jetzt kämpfen!" Rommel yelled to the girls. They didn't understand his exact words, but had a relative idea of what he wanted.

Ruby was the first to reach the battlements, her speed helping her reach the top much faster than the others. While waiting for them to catch up, she decided she'd at least mark targets for the field marshal. Thumbing on the radio, she patched herself in with the old man and started speaking. "Kommandant, I'm on the battlements, orders?"

 _"Rose, I need to know what tanks we're facing here so I can know how best to fight them."_

"Right! Let's see..." Ruby said, taking out her binoculars, she began scanning the field for the enemy tanks. She took out a notebook as well and began writing down the tanks she was able to identify on the first sheet with a pen she had. After about a minute, she turned back to the radio and started her report.

"Rommel, I've identified 7 M4 Shermans, 3 Matildas, one Churchill III, and 17 T-34s... orders?"

 _"Scheiße ... Mädchen, geh in deinen Panzer, wir brauchen deine Rüstung, damit das funktioniert"_ came the response. Ruby pinched the bridge of her nose before sighing.

"Sir, please, I can't understand your language very well..."

 _"Apologies, force of habit. Get yourself and your girls in your tank, we're going to need your armor."_ The Field Marshal responded, before terminating the connection. Turning around, she spotted her friends just now getting to the steps of the battlements.

"Mount up! Get Der Verteidiger running, Rommel said he's gonna need our armor!" Ruby yelled down at her friends. They all nodded before breaking out into a sprint towards their garage.

The differences were plenty on the tank, for one there was now spaced armor on the sides protecting the tracks, and a quick look at the engine revealed many notable improvements, such as dust power integration.

The leading mechanic approached them, he was a tall, dark skinned man in an orange jumpsuit and goggles resting on messy hair just above his forehead. He had a toolbox in one hand and a wrench in the other, and a cigarette hanging out of his mouth in a lazy fashion. "Your Panzer is ready to go. It _shouldn't_ be so fragile anymore, but don't supercharge the engine for any more than five seconds, else it'll catch fire and leave you with a dead engine."

"We can supercharge the engine?" Weiss asked, looking down into the tank's drivers' seat to find a new red glowing button with the word "supercharge" right above it, and a warning labeled below the button.

"It's something myself and the boys added, should let you get a great burst of speed in a very short time. Like I said, though, do not overdo it!" The man said, before waving them out the garage.

The sound of gunfire was progressively getting worse and worse, and Ruby, from her commanders' hatch could see fires spreading through the buildings not yet modernized. The battlements has taken serious damage, but we're still holding fast. She grit her teeth. She wasn't gonna let the White Fang win here, she couldn't. Silently but surely, she swore that she would make the White Fang pay dearly for this assault. There were people in the streets, many wounded, a few even had died, and the rest trying to make sense of what went wrong and what to do.

She decided that now would be best to restore their spirits. They already had White Fang to deal with, the last thing they needed was Grimm knocking on their door. Rising out of her hatch, she poked her upper body out of the tank to look down on the people before her.

"Everyone! Please, do not worry! The White Fang are attacking, but we are readying for our counterattack now! Please, attend to your wounded and dead, but do not despair, we can- no, WILL regain control of this fight!" She declared with steely determination, easing the fears of the civilians around her. After looking about for a few seconds, she cast her gaze back towards the fight. The White Fang's tanks wouldn't have been able to damage the town through the battlements, that means that the White Fang must have had mortars or Artillery in range to shell the town...

 _"Ruby, this is Rommel. The enemy has artillery to the south, and new reports from scouts suggest they may have a Panzerkampfwagen IV, Ausf H specifically, patrolling the area. Your primary objective is to end their bombardment, and if you can, I want that Panzer disabled, not destroyed. Panzer Vor!"_ The man finished, before thumbing off the radio. Ruby simply nodded before motioning for her tank to go forward. It was time to see what one day of training would do for them.

They were able to sneak out the back of the town to the North and circle around through the trees to reach their destination. Indeed, it was being guarded, but only by a Panzer IV, not much more to account for besides some foot soldiers and the artillery itself.

"Ruby, that Panzer IV seems to just be circling around at the moment." Blake said, her eyes trained through her gunner's sights. "We should load in an HE shell, blast it to bits as soon as it shows its rear."

Ruby contemplated the idea given, but decided to shake her head instead. "No, that'll destroy the tank. We only need disable it..." Ruby gave a moment to think, weighing her options from their concealed location among the brush. "Load in an Armor-Piercing shell, Yang. Blake, take out their forward drive wheel first, get e'm dead in the water."

The two nodded, the former loading in the round and the latter calibrating for her shot. Blake had calculated the distance to be about 600 meters, so made sure to compensate for distance, height, elevation, wind direction and strength, which way it blew, the movement speed of the Panzer, and the weight of the bullet. After a good 4.7 seconds, she grinned as she'd gotten them lined right where she wanted them. Letting out a deep breath, she pulled the trigger, and loosed her round.

The shell impacted directly where they wanted it to, blowing the tank's forward drive wheel apart and knocking its track out. Looking back down into her tank, she motioned for Weiss to stay put. Their cover and concealment was still good, the Fang didn't know where they were yet.

"Yang, load in another AP shell. Blake, take out their turret ring." Ruby calmly ordered, before looking back out the cupola. The White Fang were returning fire, but most their shots, at least the ones that would have mattered, landed nowhere near them. Ruby grinned, before dropping herself down into the tank further to man the machine gun. Cocking the gun, she let out a small laugh as she began letting rip bullets down onto the White Fang grunts.

The sound of screams from the grunts was terrible, but she didn't let that steal her good mood. Taking bursts of three second trigger pulls, she'd swiftly made short work of many fangs. Not a moment later, the boom of their 88 mm gun resounded, destroying the enemy's turret ring. Pulling herself back up to spot as the Commander, she observed the devastated and panicked state of the fangs now more clearly.

Touching her finger to her radio unit, she stated issuing out commands to her team. "Weiss, advance slowly on the enemy. Blake, pay no mind to the remaining Fangs, they're all dying in the dirt right now. Target their artillery, it's automated so taking out the crews means very little. Yang, I want you to speed up your loading."

"Right!" the three girls responded through their headsets. Ruby grinned, before rising out of the cupola halfway, and thumbing her radio whilst extending her right arm outwards once more.

"Panzer Vor!"

* * *

Rommel laughed in German once more as his 75 mm gun exploded the engine of his third T-34. Taking a small sip of wine, he reached down to pat the gunner on the head before nearly dropping his drink from an HE shell landing dangerously close to them. Growling under his breath, he raised an arm out of his cupola before properly flipping his assailants off.

"Hans!" Rommel yelled down to his radio operator. "Holen Sie sich den Status von Ruby und ihrer Crew!"

"Ruby, Kommandant Rommel würde sich nach Ihrem Status erkundigen?"

 _"I've no actual idea what you just said, but I have some vague idea. The Panzer IV has been disabled, we're clearing the artillery right now."_

"Kommandant, sie haben ihr sekundäres Ziel neutralisiert und zerstören nun ihre Artillerie. Weitere Bestellungen für sie?"

Rommel looked down at his glass of wine for a moment. These Terrorist Bastards had made him spill a little wine on his left boot, and wanted to make them pay for that. "Sag ihnen, genau wie ich sage, Mark the location for the town guard, and make your way over to the main battlefield."

Hans nodded before thumbing the radio once more for outbound communication. "Befehl des Kommandanten: mark the location for the town guard, and make your way over to the main battlefield!"

 _"Understood, tell Rommel we're inbound! ETA, three minutes."_ came the reply over the radio, to which Hans merely nodded before turning back to Rommel and holding up three fingers.

"Drei Minuten? Gerade genug Zeit für mich, um euch alle ein Glas Wein einzuschenken. Wunderbar!"

Rommel looked down to his crew before smiling to himself and beginning to sing, his team quickly falling in step.

"Ob's stürmt oder schneit,  
Ob die Sonne uns lacht,  
Der Tag glühend heiß  
Oder eiskalt die Nacht,  
Bestaubt sind die Gesichter,  
Doch froh ist unser Sinn,  
Ist unser Sinn!  
Es braust unser Panzer  
Im Sturmwind dahin!"

* * *

 **AN: Sorry for the terribly long wait on the update! Fanfiction hasn't been treating me the best on PC of late.**

 **Next update will probably be out in either a week or a month**


	4. Enter: Patton!

**A/N: I wrote this while I was sick as hell, might not be as good as some other chapters already published.**

* * *

"Steady now, our cover is good, and these Terrorists seem the part bad with their guns at best." a figure said, looking down at his crew. They all heeded his commands with confident smirks on their faces. One of them, a boy likely no older than 19, dumped the used shell and loaded a new 76 mm round into the breech the fastest he must've ever seen, being only some 3 seconds.

"General, these men are attacking us with Allied tanks... how the hell did terrorists get hold of Allied tanks? Specifically, how'd they muster this many? I've already counted at least six M4 Shermans, a dozen T-34s, and a Matilda." The gunner queried.

"A good question, sergeant, but I don't hold the answer to that question. For now, just focus on shooting." The General said before taking a look out of his commander's hatch. "There, to the Southeast about 200 meters, the Matilda is showing its rear." His statement was met with a quick nod, and not two seconds later, a loud boom, accompanied by the Matilda's engine exploding from the shot.

"Nice shot, son. Now, lets see..." he said, before peeping his head out of his hatch and looking through his binoculars. "Dear God, there's a lot of them! Wait... Sergeant, did you hit anything over two kilometers away?" The general said down to the gunner. The man shook his head before giving a simple thumbs down to signal no. "Then why the hell are there three T-34s, a Churchill III, and two Matildas blown to bits over there?" the General said, just before watching another T-34 blow up.

"Dunno, sir, but once we're through here should we ex-" The man was cut off from a loud boom to their left, doing actual damage to their side. "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!."

"Calm yourself! Gimme a moment to see where that shot came from..." the General said, before looking back out the hatch around. After a few seconds, he found it, though he wasn't pleased...

"How the hell did I not notice- Okay, now I feel outright stupid. Driver, get us to coordinates 9.5 by 11.2, that shell came from a T28." The General said calmly, before the gunner looked back up at him.

"How in God's good name did that thing get here?" he asked, bewildered and feeling stupid for not noticing such an obvious target.

"Dunno, but I don't wanna get crushed by a 105 mm shell. If you can, shoot it's track, halt it in place." He replied, affixing his M1 helmet to be more comfortable. "Now, Driver, Move it!"

* * *

Ruby kept her gaze steady through the forest. Intelligence had definitely been wrong, as on their way to the battlefield they'd encountered two Panzer IIIs. They'd asked Rommel about them, but he'd stated to just take e'm out. So they did, blasting each with an HE shell and reducing them to tiny bits. Ruby found herself more comfortable, somehow, commanding this tank than she did her team, in a way. That's not to say she was uncomfortable leading her team, and it was kinda odd, because she still technically was leading them. She shook the odd thought off, before looking ahead once more, scanning the forest for any hostiles.

Two minutes later, she could finally make out the battlefield properly. The last Matilda was well entrenched, but they also saw it was under heavy fire from field guns and artillery. 12 T-34s still remained, and the M4 Shermans, thus far, hadn't been hit. She contemplated and weighed her options for a moment, before looking down at Weiss.

"Weiss, any idea on how fast the Supercharge will make us?"

"What? The Supercharge? Well... I'd guess pretty fast... but the Engineer said no more than 5 seconds..." Weiss replied, unsure of how to proceed.

"I wanna make a B-line straight for that Matilda. Ram into it and shoot one of those Shermans from behind, blow up their engine." Ruby said, before peeping through her hatch. The Shermans had dug in, using craters and even their fallen comrades' tanks as cover, but for the most part only had good cover from one direction. She grinned, before signaling for Weiss to move forward.

"Weiss, on my mark, activate the supercharge." she said calmly, before holding up three fingers for herself. they were steadily encroaching on their target as Ruby began her small, mental countdown. The Matilda II (sorry for not clarifying model earlier) hadn't noticed them yet, meaning they'd have the element of surprise...

 _Three..._

The Matilda fired, only seeming to hit the battlements to no effect.

 _Two..._

The tank shifted ever so slightly, leaving them to hit perfectly head-on.

 _One!_

"MARK!" Ruby yelled, and immediately Weiss pressed the button. the change was a gradual, but VERY fast one, lurching them from 28 kmph to a staggering 100 kmph within a three seconds. The distance was closed almost instantly to their perspective, and within four seconds, they'd collided with the Matilda. The 60 tons of Der Verteidiger easily overpowered the 25 tons of the Matilda, sending the latter tank reeling a few meters and even gaining some air time as the tank was rendered useless from such a heavy blow. Ruby signaled for Weiss to stop the supercharge immediately after, ending the supercharge at 4.9 seconds.

"OKAY! Nice! Now, Blake, the Shermans!" Ruby yelled enthusiastically. Blake merely nodded before taking a shot at one of their targets and blowing their engine apart. She pumped her fist as she watched the tank get blown to bits, though not a moment later, they faced some counter-fire from the remaining tanks on the field.

"Weiss, back us up a bit and face e'm with our front! Their biggest guns here right now are no match for our 200 mm of frontal armor!"

"Ruby, need I alert you that our little ram did damage to US as well?" Weiss said quickly and loudly. Ruby merely waved it off.

"For now, we're fine. Once the battle is finished, we'll bring it to the mechanics for repairs."

Nodding back, Weiss quickly pivoted the Panzer to face their opposition, just as Blake fired another round, Hitting a sherman but not blowing it up. Immediately as they turned a shot hit them head on, but bounced as the 75 mm bullet found no capacity to penetrate such thick armor.

"These Fangs don't know the first thing about tanks! Granted, we've only had one battle and half a day to train, but still!" ruby beamed, watching as another T-34 was blown to bits by a precision shot from Rommel and his crew.

 _"Quite the entrance you made there, Damen."_ Came a cool voice over their radio. Rommel had taken the radio over for a moment on his end, it'd seem. _"This battle will be tied up shortly, but there is another matter I must discuss with you while we fight off these terrorists."_

"By all means, Field Marshal. These guys down here shouldn't prove too much a challenge, what is it?" Ruby replied, though was immediately met with a rather poor response.

 _"The deaths of many a soldier of all humanity's history, be it on your world or mine, has been from them underestimating their opponents. Do not forget that."_ Rommel stated sharply, causing Ruby to slump a bit. _"Now, onto the other matter: The guard spotted a Sherman on the run to the Northeast, and identified its model as an M4A3E8. Normally, they would have fired at it, but they noticed that other tanks were already firing at it. I'm going intercept that tank while you finish up over here. Ist das Klar?"_

"Sir, yes sir!" Ruby replied in a happy tone whilst giving a mock salute, not that he could see it. Looking back down at her crew, she gave Blake a small thumbs-up, before returning to her hatch and marking another target...

* * *

"Kommandant?" the communicator, Hansel addressed him. "Wird dieser Panzer, den wir abfangen, ein Freund oder Feind?" Rommel simply smiled before looking out his hatch. The same thought had crossed his mind as well, though with the insane luck this runaway panzer was showing, he had a tiny inkling of an idea as to who it was.

If he was right, things would go just fine. If he was wrong? Well, he was at least certain, because of the circle with a star in it, that these troopers were Americans and wouldn't shoot someone who'd just helped save their skin. The White Fang had since defiled the tanks he'd already seen with their stupid insignia.

"Vermutlich Freunde. Wenn auch Amerikaner hier gefallen wären, bin ich mir sicher, dass sie sich freuen werden, jemanden aus unserer Welt hier mit ihnen zu sehen." Rommel replied, before looking out his hatch as they just exited the town through the North gate. Fortunately, forestation wasn't quite as dense North of the town, so he was easily able to pinpoint where they were, and set a B-line straight towards them, and cut off their pursuers...

* * *

The General growled under his breath before taking out his handgun and popping himself out of the hatch. Almost instinctively, he reached out with his gun and fired, nailing one of the terrorists pursuing them in the face. The man's body slumped down back into the tank, a hole present in his forehead. "Hmph! Seems these terrorists' crap light-shield thingies aren't very helpful if they don't see the blow coming!"

He wouldn't admit it, as that would effect the troops' morale negatively, but this situation was getting desperate. They were being chased by some 15 tanks through woods with very little, if any, cover. He would've thought that such a chase would be an amusing sight, if not for the fact that he was being chased by tanks that were made to be HIS support on the field. He was about to look back to his surroundings for a moment, before the Sergeant by him started stuttering...

"P-p-pa-p-p-pa-pan!-"

"Out with it Sergeant! What's so-"

"Panther! Panther!" The gunner yelled, immediately garnering his attention. Looking out in front of their Sherman, low and behold, was a German Panther tank, that had set itself up in some tall grass. Upon a closer look, he'd also noticed it bore standard Wehrmacht markings. He breathed a sigh of relief, before looking out once more... and noticing their gun aligning on it...

Thinking fast, he reached down and slapped the sergeant hard across the face, yelling at him as he did so, "WHAT ARE YOU, AN IDIOT? ITS GUN IS AIMING PAST US, IT'S AN ALLY!" The Sergeant quickly corrected himself, before moving his free hand up to rub his cheek he'd been roughly slapped across. "Private Peters, move us into the tall grass with the Panther, keep our front at an angle to the enemy once in!" The man in question only nodded before turning the tank into the tall grass beside the Panther in such a way that the Panther was in front of them, but they could still shoot out on the oncoming attackers whilst keeping their front angled.

The Panther fired first, taking out a T-34, and was immediately followed by the General's gun knocking out an enemy Sherman. Return fire immediately followed but most shells missed, and the ones that struck home bounced off harmlessly.

The cycle carried off for about forty seven seconds, before finally, all the enemy tanks had been wiped out. Wiping the sweat off his brow, the General whistled a small tune to himself as he pushed open his cupola and poked his head out about halfway. He was surprised to see the top hatch pop open, and see a finely dressed officer rise out fully. But he knew, oh he definitely knew, not just anyone wore a hat in such a way. Oh nonononono, NOBODY wore that hat in such a fine way as the man himself, an old rival of his from the Africa Campaign. The One, the Only...

"The Desert Fox himself, Erwin Rommel!" He said out loud to nobody in particular. Rising fully out of his tank, he looked the man straight in the eyes with a toothy grin before vaulting himself out to greet the legend himself on foot, being met with the same action from the German Field Marshal.

"Ah, eine sehr angenehme Überraschung!" Rommel proclaimed, before firmly shaking hands with the American General.

"The pleasure is all mine, Rommel! Thanks for the timely save there but unfortunately, we've got a big, 95 ton problem headed our way shortly with a 105 mm gun." he replied, gesturing back the way he came. Sure enough, it was headed their way. Albeit slowly. Very slowly. It was also firing while moving explaining why exactly they hadn't been blown to tiny bits yet.

"Was ist das für ein Ding?" Rommel asked, taking on a confused look as he looked at the strange thing.

"It's a T28, intended to break through the Siegfried line, but by the time it was finished we'd already broken through."

"It looks like a beetle." Rommel deadpanned.

"Yeah, I kinda gotta agree... too slow, too." the American agreed.

"Definitely not fit to blitzkrieg."

"Oh most certainly not... but it's still valuable, and does have a powerful gun... lets kill it's crew before they get a lucky hit on us, eh?"

"Yes, of course." the German finished, racing back into his Panther as the American General raced into his own M4A3E8 and told the driver to move on the T28.

The T28 fired another round, barely grazing the side of the Field Marshal's Panther as the two rapidly encroached on the large, beetle-like American Super Heavy Tank Destroyer. Rommel raised a hand out of his cupola, gesturing his hand in a way that said "forward", but adding to it two fingers retracted while his index and middle finger spread apart, before coming back together and forming a fist. He was fairly certain that almost none of that was correct terminology, but he understood the plan nonetheless, communicating it to his crew.

Looking back up out of his hatch, he saw their commander and their machine gun operator had exposed themselves. Taking his pistol in hand, he waited for just the right moment. After another shot was fired, missing either tank if only by a few millimeters, and the sound of two tanks swerving hard to either side echoed, he raised himself out of his hatch, noting that the Field Marshal had done the same, leveled his pearl-gripped M1911 on the machine gun operator's head, and fired.

The sound of two handguns echoing brought a smile to both commanders' faces, as their intended targets, being the commander and machine gun operator of the enemy tank, both slumped back into their tanks, their bullets having found their marks going in one way and out the other of their targets' heads. Their tanks swerved to a stop, and the two leapt out of their tanks onto the back of the T28, swiftly racing up and dropping down into the tank, spitting hot led into the crew inside still too shocked from their comrades' deaths to properly raise their auras. After a moment or two, and some small poking of bodies to make sure they were actually dead, the two nodded in satisfaction, before rising out of the tank together and simply nodding towards each other.

"Well, That's was the closest I think I ever got to an enemy intending to kill him. Nice work by the way, Rommel." The American General said, tipping his M1 helm to the German field Marshal who mimicked his action with his Field Visor...

"du auch, Patton." Erwin replied, gaining a ghost of a grin from the General, now officially recognized as General George Smith Patton Jr.

* * *

She would have to have Yang punch her across the face to drive this lesson home, because she'd underestimated her opponents, and now their track had been blown out, and four enemy tanks, two M4s, and two T-34s had escaped, and lit their engine on fire in their escape. Yang had set out the fire with the extinguished, but said the engine had taken considerable damage. They could still move, but if they pushed over 16 km/ph they risked further engine damage. So, after repairing the track with considerable effort, they began their sort of crawl back to town. They didn't know how Rommel would react to this result. Sure, they'd only just gotten into fighting with their tank for the second time and they were, by all means, newbies with their tank, but they also didn't know exactly how he'd react to four tanks escaping.

After about fifteen minutes, they'd managed to return Der Verteidiger to its garage, and immediately raced back to the house. Today had been very stressful, as today had been the first time they'd had serious opposition with their Panzer, being other tanks. All they knew for certain about today, is that a lot of people had been killed...

* * *

"...60 total casualties, among them 56 wounded and four dead among the guard. Among civilian populace, casualties are at 30, with six dead, two in critical condition, and 22 wounded." The Field Marshal finished reading the report, before dropping the files back down on the table. All of RWBY was present and standing at attention in the back of the room where they'd been told to stand with the other tank crews.

"Well, it could have been much worse, I suppose." General Patton mused. "Still, the loss of civilian life is regrettable. Had I arrived earlier, maybe I could have prevented this... or at least lessened the blow." He looked at both his crew, Rommel's, and the crew of little girls, the youngest of which couldn't have been even 15. "Nevertheless, Today was a victory overall. A total of 90 casualties, of them, ten deaths on our side, and from the confirmed kills on tanks, a total of 187 killed, 1 captured."

"Excuse me, but... one single enemy was captured? How?" Ruby spoke up, with both Generals looking at her with some mild curiosity.

"Well," Rommel spoke up, "the guard had reported that the gunner of the Panzer IV killed the rest of his crew, reportedly, he, and I quote, "wasn't being paid enough to deal with this armored nonsense.""

"So we captured a mercenary then? Now I'm confused, are we fighting terrorists or Mercenaries?" The other General asked, causing Blake to quickly speak up.

"The White Fang are a group of extremist Faunas that are willing to use violence and terror tactics make humans respect them out of fear... So in the sense, yes, I suppose they are Terrorists, but... I've never heard of them using Mercenaries before." She spoke quickly, earning some interested looks out of those present in the room outside of her own team.

"How do you... It doesn't matter. Rommel, can we question this prisoner?" Patton asked, earning a small shake no from Rommel.

"Not at the immediate moment, no, as he's currently being run through security procedures. Lieutenant Mira personally oversaw the moving of the prisoner, saying she recognized him. She stated that we could question him come 0300 tomorrow morning."

"Alright... that's 8 eight hours away now. I suppose in that time we can prepare some questions and think up some methods to get him to talk through... psychological means, should he prove resistant to initial questioning." Patton nodded once ending his statement, getting the same from Rommel to show their agreement. Looking to the crews, he waved his own and Rommel's off, but halted RWBY before they could leave.

Looking to Rommel, who had joined him in front of the girls, they both stared down the girls for a moment before Rommel merely closed his eyes and began to speak.

"Now... I know I ordered you to beat back the remaining offenders, but-"

"You four let four enemy tanks, FOUR enemy tanks get away, what explanation could you possibly have for such a failure?!" Patton chastised them loudly, making them shrink back slightly.

"Well... I-"

"I take full responsibility for this failure, General." Ruby interrupted Weiss, taking a step forward to face the General. "I was careless, and underestimated the foe. My team are not to blame for my failure." Beads of sweat shot down her brow, knowing her statement likely garnered a silent panic out of her team. Patton approached her, hot in her face and sized her up.

After a few tense moments, the General backed off a bit, resting a hand on her shoulder. "Miss Rose, if I'm not mistaken? Your orders, carelessness, and failure to understand the weight of the situation could have gotten your entire team killed, and left an opening in the town that those remaining could have punched through... But I appreciate it when a commander owns up to their responsibilities and failures. You will be reprimanded for this, but seeing as you're only in your second day of training..."

"You will serve latrine duty." Rommel said. "The barracks of the guard have their latrines, and they must be cleaned out. for your failure, and in light of you taking sole responsibility of it, you will do it alone, tomorrow morning at 0430. Am I understood?"

"Yes, sir, Field Marshal." Ruby replied in monotone.

"Good. Now, return to our lodging, I shall prepare dinner once I return. Dismissed." He said, immediately followed by them falling out of formation and returning to Rommel's house...

After a few minutes, being sure they weren't in range to hear them. Patton merely looked to Rommel, before twitching his head in the direction of the Troops' Messhall. The Field Marshal nodded in agreement, before making their way down...

* * *

"Did I ever ask about how you arrived here, Patton?" Rommel asked, cleaning his face off with a napkin.

"No, You haven't. You want to know?" the man replied.

"Yes, most certainly. I'm wondering if our conditions were similar."

"Well..." Patton Began, "To start, Hitler has commit suicide, to get you up to recent news."

"Has he now?"

"Yeah, Soviets from the East pushed into Berlin. The German 9th Army made a large rescue operation, making a corridor for civilians to escape through to the west. Downright Heroic, that... But I digress, it was December 9th, 1945, we were near Neckardstadt, in an automobile after the war was won for the Allies... I saw another automobile on a collision course with us, but it was too late to stop. Just as I braced for the impact, I was enveloped in some Green light, and transported here. I woke up in the middle of a forest, and that M4A3E8 Sherman was next to me, it's engine sleeping and the entire crew unconscious save for the commander what was killed, a bullet through the head did that. I roused the troops, we buried the commander respectfully, and followed the river for a few miles before we were ambushed." Patton stated, taking a bite of some of his mashed potatoes.

"1945? It's only been two months, here." Rommel stated, confused.

"I was just as confused at first, seeing as my crew arrived her mere moments after I did, judging by their unconscious and still fresh looking states, but they said it was 1943."

"Wie seltsam..." Rommel stated, before looking back down and plucking up a small bit of beef with his fork and chowing down. Indeed, this was a very strange world they'd found themselves in...

* * *

About an hour and a half had passed before Rommel had arrived and made them their dinners. Patton had joined him, but was supposedly sleeping in the room across the hall from Rommel's upstairs. They supposed it wasn't too terribly unexpected, though they were rather unsure of how much different their training would now be with TWO Generals...

"Hey, Ruby..." Yang called, looking up at her from her mattress. "You didn't have to do that, y'know. we would have gladly shared this with you..."

"No." the younger girl replied with great simplicity. "The failure wasn't any of yours. I lost my cool, got too excited... and could have gotten you all killed like that... we're lucky I didn't." Ruby tightened her fist, tighter and tighter, until finally, the other girls saw some blood start to drip...

"I will commit this to memory... I'll do this so that I never forget, and never make such a stupid, obvious mistake ever again, so I don't endanger you all ever again. I'll be the greatest armored commander this world or theirs has ever seen, Better than Rommel, Better than Patton! This, I swear..." Ruby gritted out while grinding her teeth together. She was surprised when she felt three hand gently land on her shoulders...

"Don't worry, Rubes! We'll be with you all the way! By the time we're done here, that German 75 mm loader will wish he could load his 75 as fast as I can load our 88!" Yang supported loudly.

"I won't leave your side, Ruby, and I'm not gonna let you pass me by in our respective skills. I'll be the best gunner there's ever been." Blake said cooly, but with some fire in her voice.

"Don't think I'm gonna let you outpace me, dolt! I'm gonna make sure I'm always two steps ahead of you in skill, and I'll make sure that no one can hold a candle to MY skill as a driver!" Weiss said haughtily, but with obvious care and friendliness in her tone.

Smiling to each of her friends, she quickly wrapped them all in a hug, before breaking off and looking to them each...

"Hey, I've an Idea!" Yang said enthusiastically.

"I don't think I'm gonna like it..." Blake mumbled.

"C'mon, guys! Y'see, Ruby broke skin to signal her promise to herself AND us..."

"I think I see where this is going..." Blake stated, connecting the dots.

"Well, we made a promise both to ourselves and to her, we should give her the same respect, right?"

The group was silent for a moment, each contemplating while Ruby let her bleeding hand dangle. The silence was broken eventually by Blake putting her hand out, with the telltale marks that she'd bit into her own flesh with her nails evident from the blood rolling down it. Ruby's eyes widened, as Blake held her hand out, and nodded to Ruby to ask to join. She did just that, followed soon by Yang, and not a moment later by Weiss, each brandishing a bloody hand. They repeated their promises in unison, though each more official like, before breaking off, cleaning and bandaging their respective self-inflicted wounds, before tucking in for the night...

Unbeknownst to them, Rommel looked on through the camera he'd placed in that room prior to their arrival with a very smug, calculating and yet endearing smile, Patton watched with idle interest...

"They really are dedicated, aren't they?" Patton commented idly.

"Yes, I believe so... Let's hope they channel that dedication properly." Rommel stated, before closing the terminal and reclining back in his chair.

"Dedication can be a dual-edged sword, Rommel. We'll need to hone what they've got and temper it with a cool head, and tactics and strategies if they're gonna survive their little crusade they've declared."

"I know... but for now, I believe they have the right idea in retiring for the day..." Rommel commented, before opening the door out from the computer room of his and opening his own door to retire for the night. "Gute Nacht, General."

"Likewise, Field Marshal. Likewise." Patton replied, before stalking back into his own room and quickly falling asleep in the comfortable bed given to him...


	5. A True Super-Heavy Vehicle

**A/N: Prepare for tanks, assault guns, and a side of super-heavy.**

* * *

 _Two weeks later..._

Rommel and Patton scouted yet another town. Like the rest, it lied in ruins. Blown to bits like every other town they'd been through in the past week, the telltale signs of a desperate but futile attempt against White Fang armor and guns. Rommel's eyes were darkened under his visor as he looked at the grim scene, the slaughter of innocents, and his emotions only barely masked. Patton, on the other hand, was taking in the scene in much the same way, but expressing himself in a far different way...

"DAMN IT!" Patton roared, slamming his fist into the snow and seething with anger. Winter had come, and graced the night-cloaked land in a fresh blanket of snow, and with it, they'd learned that their town wasn't the only one under siege. Towns all over the region were being silenced. As of now, they'd only just confirmed that to the North, South, and West they were all alone.

"Patton, alle Schäden in der Stadt sehen gleich aus." Rommel said, before rising to his feet and briskly jogging down the hill they were situated on, with the General hot on his heels. They'd quickly reached the city, and ducked into the ruins of a small, blown up store. There were corpses inside, none of them even armed or in uniform, all of them with nasty wounds or states of dismemberment. Blood was everywhere, and many bullet holes lined the walls and some of the corpses. He quietly counted the bodies while Patton looked the bodies over. The bullet holes were obviously made by a 7.92×57mm, probably an MG34 or 42. "These poor sods didn't stand a chance..."

"einundzwanzig, zweiundzwanzig, dreiundzwanzig. 23 tote Zivilisten hier." Erwin stated grimly, before reaching down and pressing a hand to a body. "Hmmm... these bodies are still warm. Attack must've been recent."

That didn't comfort the General at all, so they decided to look around for more evidence as to what had been used to attack them. Though the more and more they looked around, the more they disliked what they saw. Along the road, not far from where they'd been there was a large, used shell partially buried under some rubble.

Pulling the shell out, they examined the rear to determine just how big of a threat they were facing. Rommel quickly noted the shell to be a 12.8 cm shell, before dropping it and looking back to the buildings around them...

"It takes firepower to do this kind of damage this quick, and it obviously wasn't artillery that hit this place, otherwise that shell wouldn't be here." Patton stated, and received a nod from the Field Marshal in agreement. Looking around a bit more, he identified another used shell, this one a 7.5 cm, while Rommel identified only one set of tracks leading through the snowy road...

"Nur ein einzelner Satz von Spuren. War wohl ein Jagdtiger." Rommel concluded, before looking back to Patton and seeing the latter staring curiously at a used shell he'd not seen. "was ist das?"

"7.5 cm." Patton said curiously. "Jagdtiger doesn't got a 7.5 cm." He finished, before dropping the shell and looking back up at the Field marshal, who along with having stiffened up greatly seemed to have become much, much paler.

"Patton... I want you to tell me again, absolutely, one hundred percent clearly, the caliber of that shell." He said with a very shaky voice and a terrified expression on his face.

"Uhh..." Patton mumbled out, before looking back at the shell. "Yeah, definitely a 7.5 cm, why? What the hell are we facing here, Rommel?"

"Scheiße!" Rommel swore loudly, immediately followed by a loud rumbling, and the sound of a powerful engine in movement...

Slowly turning around, both gaped in momentary awe and shock as what was easily the largest tank they'd ever seen began rounding a corner and turning it's turret towards them...

"Run." Was all Rommel uttered, before both began a dead sprint away, ducking into an alley for cover but not before the 12.8 cm resounded behind them, and they were both thrown forward and onto their faces from the resulting explosion. They'd have to thank the girls later for unlocking their auras, as without it, they'd both be as dead as a person could possibly be. Quickly picking themselves up, they resumed their sprint to the hill just as the coaxial 7.5 cm fired, raining down debris behind them as they cleared the alley and made their way up the hill.

Immediately upon reaching the foot of the hill, the ripping noise echoed from an MG34, and peppered their position in a hail of gunfire. They redoubled their efforts at getting up the hill, as a few more stray shots chipped away at their already weakened auras. As soon as they reached the top, both main guns fired at once, launching them forward. The explosion didn't reach them, but the force of the explosion following it sent them reeling, only being saved by the snow cushioning their falls. Their auras were now totally depleted, but they had their lives.

Their crews were looking out on them from their respective tanks, each with a look of horror as they raced out to assist their commanders back into the tanks. Looking back up, Rommel yelled into his radio to their brothers in arms in the M4A8E3...

"RÜCKZUG! RÜCKZUG! WIR KÖNNEN NICHT HIER GEWINNEN!" Rommel yelled, immediately seeing results as both tanks began to hightail it back to Wulften...

* * *

"So..." Lieutenant Mira began, facing Crew Verteidiger. "You've completed all set parameters of your training set for the day. Crew Faust is almost done with their training, and the Ironhide is still under modification, but their crew finished their studies on their battlefield purpose twenty minutes ago. Until the Generals return and say otherwise, you are free to do as you wish." The crew being spoken to all gave crisp salutes, before doing an about face and making their way to the mess hall. Sighing, Lieutenant Mira merely looked back down at the folder in her hands, specifically the tab in it on the information they'd collected from the mercenary. Looking back from the files and adjusting her uniform, she briskly jogged down to the Prison block...

It only took a few minutes to get through security, and to have the merc moved into the questioning room. Such had to be done via wheelchair due to the nature of his weapons. Opening the door, she quietly slipped herself in before shutting it, and sitting down in front of the boy, who looked much different in his orange inmate clothes...

"Well, well, well... Mira, to what do I owe the 'pleasure'?" he said sarcastically. She ignored him, and merely pressed her fingers together and staring at him.

"I'm going to give you two options, Mercury." Mira stated calmly. "Either stay behind bars for the rest of your life, or join us."

"Join you?!. You gotta be kidding, the hell would you even need me for?"

"One tank is undermanned. Der Verteidiger has a crew of four, but it needs five. Now, I know how you are, Mercury. After all, you tried-"

"And failed to, PLEASE don't for get that!"

"to kill me once." Mira stated bluntly, ignoring that he'd interrupted her. "I got to know you closely during that time, and learned that you _never_ break a promise. That's why you don't promise success for jobs, isn't it? You know something could go wrong?"

"Yes..." Mercury growled out through gritted teeth. "I don't value much in life, but I do value my word, and I don't go back on it. Ever."

"Good. Then you can promise to pledge your loyalty to Ms. Rose." Mira said smugly, relishing his exasperated reaction.

"Woahwoahwoahwoahwoah wait! I can't pledge my loyalty to some little girl barely older than sixteen yet!" Mercury rushed out, panicked.

"Well then, I guess you won't be leaving those orange rags behind. Take care, Black." Mira stated without showing any emotion, before gathering her folder and standing up. Right before she could touch the door, though, Mercury snapped out of his shocked state...

"A-Alright! I'll pledge my loyalty to her!" He stammered out.

"Promise? She said, a sly grin on her face...

"Yes, Please! I promise! I swear It on my life!" Mercury rushed out, capitulating under the threat of a lifetime behind bars.

"Good." Was all Mira said, before knocking on the door. It opened, and she left the assassin in the room for a moment while she spoke to some important people...

* * *

Ruby and her team had had a fine day so far. Their training was productive, and the cold kept their tank from getting too hot. Yang had made good timing with reloading over the past two weeks, dropping down to 6.1 seconds per shot, and Blakes hit/miss ratio had improved to 87 percent. Weiss had gotten markedly better at driving the tank as well, with Ruby keeping good pace as their commander. Still, they were one man short. Ruby's A-set could only be used to either issue orders to her crew, or communicate with other crews on the same frequency within a short distance. They needed a radio operator that could double for operating the machine gun. She also wanted to see if she couldn't find a Tiger Henschel, as in her opinion, the cupola on her turret was too large, and the aforementioned Tiger had a much better cupola than her own.

She dismissed that thought, and continued maintenance on their tank. They were still learning the ins and outs of it, mechanically speaking, but they at least knew how to do basic maintenance like cleaning the barrel, balancing the tracks, and checking the engine. She was currently applying new paint for a winter camouflage, and her team was busy modifying the tracks with Winterketten.

After about two hours, they'd finished their modifications, and patted themselves on the backs on their job well done. Looking down at Weiss, she clasped her teammate's shoulder and spoke plainly.

"Wir haben das früher beendet, als ich gedacht hätte." Ruby said in her limited, but expanding German.

"I agree, I didn't expect us to be finished for at least another hour or two. We're getting good at this." Weiss concluded, before Yang came out from underneath the tank.

"I'm gonna have to wash my uniform tonight, Rom would blow a gasket if he saw me this dirty!" Yang exclaimed, her face and uniform covered in oil and grease. Rom was what Yang had come to call the Field Marshal behind his back about a week prior.

"I second that, but mine just smells... well, it could smell better." Blake grimaced. Ruby just stifled a small laugh before making her way down from the top of the turret. Once down she called her team to attention.

"Alright guys, we did great today, aber morgen müssen wir besser sein! Let's throw our uniforms in the wash and tuck in for the night. Tomorrow we'll wake up exactly one hour early to throw our uniforms in the dryers." Ruby stated, earning a collective sigh of relief from her team. She just quietly chuckled before leading her friends out to their crew quarters in the barracks they'd moved into.

As they were all almost out the door, a voice called them from behind...

"Ms. Rose, I require your's and your crew's attention immediately." it said. Turning around, she saw Lieutenant Mira, standing beside her was the mercenary she'd learned was named "Mercury Black."

"Ah, of course, Ma'am." Ruby stated, giving a crisp salute, her teammates quickly mimicking her action.

"This here is Mercury Black. Mister Black, you are now officially attached to Crew Verteidiger as their radio operator and machine gunner. Now, Introduce yourself." She said in an orderly and firm manner. the Boy quickly stepped up and bowed to Ruby.

"On account of a promise made, I've sworn my loyalty to you and your team. Let's not get into the 'Meet&Greet', we all already know each other." Mercury said reluctantly. Ruby only nodded in response.

"Alright, Mercury." Mira said. "You'll be taking commands from her, now, and following the chain of commands as such. You listen to her, but myself before her, and the Generals before me. Ist das klar?"

"Yeah, like crystal..." he droned. The Lieutenant nodded, before quietly walking away. Mercury, now faced with four girls, all shorter than he, and all admirable in their own... physical, rights to him. He just lightly coughed to sort of break the awkward silence.

"So..." Ruby began, looking him up and down to inspect his uniform and make sure everything was correct. She nodded, seeing that all was in order. The Tailor must've dressed him before he was brought to them. Looking to her team, they just shrugged, so Ruby continued...

"You uh... You know any German?"

* * *

Rommel and Patton practically raced into the town, their hearts still racing from their brief but deadly encounter. They were quickly met with at least a dozen medical personnel rushing to them and their crews, looking them over for injuries. As Rommel waved them off, Patton gave one guardsman very strict orders to get Lieutenant Mira in the ops center immediately. The man broke out into a dead sprint to find the Lieutenant, while the two Generals' crews were waved off by their commanders to get food and rest.

About ten minutes later, The Field Marshal, General, and Lieutenant were all gathered together in the Ops Center. The latter looked concerned, as the two men's uniforms were ever so slightly ruffled up. This wasn't a good thing to see from Generals.

"Lieutenant, firstly, we've completed our objective we set out for yesterday night. There's good news and bad news in that. Secondly... Rommel?"

"Leutnant, wir haben ein sehr ernstes 188 Tonnen Problem in unseren Händen." Rommel said with slightly wide eyes. Immediately, the woman's pupils dilated appropriately, her eyes widened and her mouth gaped.

"F-field M-marshal... P-p-p-please d-don't tell m-me... T-they have a..."

"We're telling you, Lieutenant, it is. We'd know, after all, it shot at us." Patton chimed in. The poor girl slumped back in her chair, her hands rifling through her own hair as a million thoughts ran through her mind. She had just been given some of the worst news she could possibly be given, as she knew very well they didn't have any firepower capable of halting such a vehicle.

"Can our T95 break it's armor? It's got a 10.5 cm?" Patton continued.

"The most we'll do with anything below 12 cm to any weak point it's got is annoy the crew with the sound of the shot bouncing off." Rommel deadpanned. Patton growled angrily, if he had the amount of tanks at his disposal that he did during the war, this wouldn't have been a problem. But as it currently is...

"Anyways, the good news is we've mapped out the White Fang patrol routes." Rommel continued. Mira didn't wait to ask what was on her mind.

"And the bad news?" She asked.

"We're alone to the North, South and West. White Fang obliterated our neighbors with their panzers."

"Oh lord... any survivors?"

"None, Mira. From what we could tell, nobody in any of the towns survived." Patton cut in. The woman simply moved a hand to her mouth, before quickly excusing herself from the room...

They were both quiet, and after the Lieutenant didn't return five minutes later, they decided that the meeting was at an end. They agreed they'd not punish her, after all, if what she said was true, the poor girls' family was scattered across those towns. Sighing, they both made their way to the Crew Verteidiger's room...

* * *

Mercury wasn't sure just how much luckier he could get, sharing a room with four beautiful ladies. The room had it's own bathroom, it's own washers and driers, and to top it all off on a highlight, military showers. The latter he would've been extremely uncomfortable with if he'd have to share with other dudes, but he was the only guy in this team, and he was very happy about that. He also knew that because of required timetables they had to move at, none of them would be able to say he had to go after them or before them. He was actively aware that in this instance, he was an EXTREMELY lucky guy.

So, like the girls, he undressed, but only stowed his uniform in his footlocker, before wrapping a towel around his waist to have some measure of modesty, before looking over at the girls. They'd thrown all their clothes in the wash, and wrapped themselves in their own towels, and were currently preparing their night-time clothes on their beds, consisting of a sports bra, black compression shorts, and a dark gray tank top.

Once they were done, (and he too prepared his night-time clothes, of them being black compression shorts and a similar tank top) he followed them into the showers. They all took their towels off without a thought, like they didn't even realize each other was in the room, and hung them on the racks. Mercury mimicked their actions, but couldn't take his eyes off the naked beauties the entire two minutes of shower-time.

It was only about three minutes later that Mercury became somewhat disappointed, the fan-service ending with the girls wrapping themselves back up with their towels and getting dressed. Mercury tried to play off his awkward situation a bit...

"So... How come you're all so used to showering like that?" Mercury stated bluntly. His response was mostly just the girls staring blankly at him with some confusion written on their faces. Ruby spoke up first.

"Well," she began, "when you're being yelled at by Mira to hurry it up, you tend to learn how to ignore each other's presence quite well." The other three girls nodded in agreement, before turning to their own beds to get under the covers.

Mercury sighed. Of course Mira would ruin it like that. Why wouldn't she? Mercury had almost lost himself in his own thoughts when the door swung open, revealing the two generals, neither looking in the best state if their uniforms were any indication.

"Fräuleins!" Rommel stated quickly, immediately garnering all the girls attention.

"Ja, Kommandant?" Ruby answered.

"Ich muss dich benachrichtigen, we've a major situation."

"Major is an utterly ludicrous understatement, Rommel." Patton said, his hands behind his back.

"Umm... Sirs? If I may ask, what's the issue?" Ruby queried. everyone was silent for a moment, with the air getting tense and the room getting increasingly uncomfortable. After about a minute of this uncomfortable silence and tension, the Field Marshal sighed, and held his hands behind his back...

"Fräuleins, they have a Maus."


	6. The New Guy

**DISCLAIMER: In this chapter, there is a few sexist comments towards one of the characters. Keep in mind, that they are dealing with people from the 1940s, and that it was unheard of for women in the German and United States to serve in any military role, save for as nurses, and almost exclusively saw combat, in very limited numbers, in the Soviet Union only.**

 **2nd Disclaimer: Apologies if this is a bit of a lesser chapter, was pretty rushed when making this.**

* * *

An hour of silence had passed since Rommel dropped that bomb of info on Crew Verteidiger, and to say they were worried would likely be the understatement of the year. A Panzer VIII Maus, the absolute worst thing they could encounter. That thing alone could rip all their fortifications to pieces and there wouldn't be a thing they could do about it. The Generals had left after some discussion, and even broaching the subject of possible evacuation, though nobody wanted to do that. Now they all simply lay down in their beds, not asleep, but not quite awake.

Ruby was concerned, for her team, the town, everything. That tank could ruin everything if they didn't do something about it, and she didn't plan on sitting idly and just watching it approach. But tonight, she was tired, and the Maus was probably a few days away. She'd sleep, and wake up as planned, but now she had some goal in mind for the short-term.

They followed the morning routine they set for themselves before making their way to the mess hall. Four of them did, at least. Ruby, in some more casual clothes, made a b-line to the Generals' house. She'd had a dream while she slept, one relating to a strategy to beat the Maus.

Swiftly banging her fist on the door, she was quickly met with a very surprised looking Patton...

"Rose, what are you doing here?" He asked.

"General, I have an idea that might help us beat the Maus." Ruby stated, gaining an unbelieving look from the General.

"Do you now?" He mumbled, before gesturing for her to come inside. She did so quietly, sitting at the table where Rommel already sat, a map of the region in front of him.

"Well, you had an idea, Fräulein? Let us hear it." Rommel stated calmly. Ruby straightened her posture before speaking.

"Field Marshal, General... I believe we'll have enough firepower to deal with the Maus if we upgrade the gun on the T28 from a 10.5 cm to a 155mm." Ruby stated quickly, causing Patton to almost spit out his coffee.

"Correct me if I misheard, but you mean to add a 155mm in place of the 10.5 cm? Do you have the faintest idea how much modification we'd have to do to make such a modification? For starters, we'd have to build a new ammunition rack, and the new gun from scratch, and then there's the trouble of installing such a large modifications." Patton stated bluntly, which garnered a small frown from the girl.

"General, please, if we don't do this we won't stand a chance against that thing! The T28 has the armor to stand off against it at a long range, it only lacks the firepower!"

"Calm yourself, girl. I never said it was a bad idea, only a tall order. Not to mention the fact that her crew has never actually trained in their tank before..." Patton mused, and got Rommel to pitch in.

"Perhaps we needn't a crew for it yet... Rose, can Belladonna handle the T28's gun?" Rommel stated, receiving an unsure look from the girl.

"Blake has only used German sightings... she'd need to familiarize herself with American-"

"Well then, no time like the present." Patton cut back in, cutting the girl off. "Instead of your normal training today, we'll have Belladonna getting a feel for American guns. In the meantime, the rest of your crew should get to know your new member, and get him acquainted with his new role in your crew."

"Ah, sir, yessir! I'll inform Blake you wanna see her after Breakfast." Ruby stated, giving a crisp salute despite not being in uniform. The two generals waved the girl off, and Ruby began her jog to rejoin her crew...

* * *

She burst into the mess hall in a flurry of rose petals, immediately garnering her team's attention, and the curious eyes of a few of the other personnel in the mess hall. Briskly jogging up to her crew, she immediately sat down next to Blake, filling the gap between her and Mercury. Looking back at the raven haired girl, she rested her hand on the older girl's shoulder...

"Blake, instead of our standard training, you're going to be reporting to General Patton today." Ruby stated firmly, getting a nod from the girl in question. "Everyone else, we've orders to familiarize ourselves with our new teammate, and to get him familiarized with his new role as our radio and machine gun operator." The rest of her team nodded at that, with Weiss and Yang giving small salutes.

"I don't see why you'd need to familiarize me with how to operate a machine gun, even less sense it makes to get me used to a radio, after all, I just speak into-" Mercury began, but was cut off by Weiss.

"Tell me, do you know how to repair a damaged radio?"

"Uhh... No, but-"

"Do you know how to fix issues that are common in machine guns, like jamming or replacing an overheated barrel?"

"No, I don't, but that hardly-"

"And do you know exactly WHAT you need to be saying through the radio, what isn't necessary, and what is?"

"Okay, okay, I get it!" Mercury capitulated, raising his hands defensively. "Maybe I'll need a little help, but how hard can it possibly be?"

"None of our jobs are supposed to be terribly difficult for us, what with proper training." Ruby said, cutting back into the conversation. "But that doesn't mean we can afford lackluster performance or minimal effort. Alles andere als unser Bestes bringt uns alle um."

"Okay, seriously, I don't know... what the hell, German, you call it? Speak normally!"

"You'll not take that tone with her, Mercury, she's our commanding officer!" Blake snapped at the boy, but was hushed by Ruby, giving a hand gesture to sit back down. "Sorry, Ruby."

"No need to apologize, but you are correct. Please do not raise your voice with me, Mercury. And, to translate, what I said, 'Anything but our best kills us all.'" Ruby said, getting a nod from the boy. "You'll learn the ropes of your position, and you'll perform your new duties with 100% of your effort every time if you wish for any of us, yourself included, to see tomorrow's sunrise."

The boy nodded once more, before returning to his food. They all did the same, and for maybe ten more minutes, they simply ate without discussion, chowing down into their breakfasts of two slices of bread, one with jam and the other with animal fats mixed with onions. It was their normal breakfast of late, their lunch would be larger, heavier, and their dinner a sort of middle area.

With breakfast out of the way, they all stood up and went on their way. Blake made a B-line straight to the Generals' garage, while Yang, Weiss, and Mercury made their way down to Der Verteidiger. Ruby, on the other hand, made her way back to their barracks. After all, it wouldn't look good on her as the commander if she were the only one of her team out of uniform, now would it?

* * *

The garage looked a lot smaller that it actually was on the outside, though that's not to say it by any means looked small. It was easily larger than their own garage, and was clearly made to house more, or in the least, bigger tanks than their own. On the inside there was many more stations to work on their tanks than there were in their own garage, with the Generals' just generally having nicer everything. She wasn't complaining, after all, she knew they were the officers in this whole operation, the ones who called the shots and actually led them into battle. The least could be done for e'm was to have a nicer place.

Shaking the irrelevant thought, she ascended the stairs to Patton's office, where she saw him munching on a cigar through the window. Immediately, upon reaching the door, she knocked, and received a loud 'come in' in response. Opening the door, she took a few steps in before straightening out and saluting the general, who merely waved for her to stand at ease.

"Alright, Belladonna. You're gonna get acquainted with American tank optics today." Patton said, getting a curious look from Blake.

"Sir? I don't understand, I don't-"

"I understand that, but desperate times call for desperate measures. Rommel and myself are going to be dealing with the other tanks backing up the Maus coming our way, meaning our crews are going to be preoccupied... however, you've proven a deadly gunner, and the crew for the T28 has not even operated it yet. With the upgrades being currently under development and construction, we've still not a competent gunner for the Ironhide, and that's where you come in."

"Oh, I understand. So then, how are we going to do this, sir?"

"Simple. We're taking the T28 up to the firing range right now, and I'm gonna have my boy gunning the Sherman teach you how to use your gun effectively. Dismissed." Patton finished, giving her a small salute, one she very swiftly returned, before jogging out the room and down towards the gunner in question...

* * *

"So, my job is a little bigger than just relaying orders and shooting a machine gun, isn't it?" Mercury querried, getting a swift nod of confirmation from the blonde girl, Yang.

"Yep. Your job is also to act as an extra pair of eyes for the commander, and to keep on with updates for friendly tanks in the field, doing things like spotting and calling out targets, and keeping everyone aware of updates and developments on the field, such as keeping the commander updated on damage done to other tanks, like a broken track or a damaged turret ring. Most that information will get relayed to the commander already, but just keep that in mind. Ruby doesn't have her own radio for long-range communication, so you'll have to relay some information to and from her with friendlies. Make sense?" Yang said, trying to keep it as swift as possible without leaving any details out.

"Yeah, I guess. And I take it I'm also in charge of repairing some things?"

"Yes, but mostly that just falls down to you needing to repair your radio if it takes any damage, and maintaining the MG 42. Ruby might also call on you to repair other things if need be, but that'll probably be pretty rare."

"You'll want to learn the basics of German machine gun maintenance." Weiss cut in. "The mechanisms of these guns is very different in comparison to Atlesian machine guns, but are also notably simpler."

Mercury simply nodded, before looking back at the tank and resting his hand on it. There was a strange coating over the steel he felt, and he didn't quite understand the point of it...

"What's this strange stuff all over the hull of the tank? Why's it there?" He questioned, with Weiss being the only one initially getting what he was referring to.

"Zimmerit. It's an anti-magnetic paste used to prevent direct contact with magnetic anti-tank mines. It's also hardened to give some more protection to the tank without increasing the weight." She answered, satisfying the boy's curiosity, though then he looked at the treads. She followed his gaze, and answered his question before it could be voiced. "Winterketten. Track extensions used for greater traction in winter environments. And before you ask, those plates fitted to hang off the side of the tank are called Schürzen. They're there to provide better protection to the weaker sides of the armor, and prematurely detonate High Explosive shells, making them much less effective against a tank's weaker armor. With what we've found in what the White Fang is employing, this provides much needed protection as they're using highly-concentrated fire dust rounds, effectively making their own high explosive rounds, and they also don't seem to be employing, at least in large number, Armor Penetrating munitions. From what we've deduced, they're only using that as a sort of filler ammo." Weiss stated, dumbing it down as much as she possibly could, yet still losing the boy...

"In layman's terms," Yang said, translating, "the White Fang are mainly using ammunition that these plates make far less powerful."

"Ah, y'see, that's all you needed to say!" Mercury said, resting his hands behind his head with a cocky grin. If he wanted an explanation from then on out, he made a note to ask any of the girls other than Weiss. Granted, the first few explanations made sense, but it's just the extra words she'd added to the last that made it that much harder to follow. Once again, he began giving the tank a once-over, looking with some awe at the massive beast. He remembered that the Panzer IV he was previously in only loaded a 7.5 cm gun, whereas this new one loaded 8.8 cm. Not to mention that this thing had 20 cm of frontal armor, which to him was absolutely nuts. Those new Paladins that Atlas were ushering in, even if only in Prototype phase, paled in comparison for protective value. Not to mention this thing's gun would make a mockery of it's armor, as it's armor was 30 mm at it's thickest, 45 mm with Up-Armored supplementary plates, and it's machine guns only reached up to 12.7 mm diameter rounds. Sure, it's rockets might provide a substantial threat if it, say, hit the engine or something... but something told him that these girls would have a counter in the works for just that...

"So, how would this thing protect itself against, say... rockets? Like those mounted on aircraft." He asked, taking in the unsure look from the blonde...

"I'm... not entirely sure. Weiss suggested a hardlight dust shield generator, but we don't have access to the necessary resources or schematics to make such upgrades. That, and the fact that it would require some serious modification to actually put such a shield in place."

"If we had the materials and such to make it, it really wouldn't be an issue... but as it is, we can't right now. We don't even fully understand how everything on these Panzers work ourselves, yet, so we really can't do much right now besides train and get better at operating them." Weiss said. She patted the tank on the side, before pulling herself up on top of the engine. Yang had also pulled herself up on top of their Tiger, and opened the hatch in the turret to slide down and get into her loading position, not that she actually needed to be there.

"Hmmm... we're dealing with a Panzer VIII, our 88 mm will be useless against it, Weiss."

"You think I don't know that, Yang?"

"Never said that, but maybe Ruby would greenlight an upgrade to up-gun the tank?" Yang queried, getting a somewhat interested look from the heiress.

"What did you have in mind for that?"

"Upgrade the gun from an 8.8 cm to a 10.5 cm?"

Weiss face palmed at that. "As good as that may sound on paper, it's not so easy fitting a new gun into a tank. For an upgrade like that, we'd need to make a new turret AND ammo rack. Not to mention, if the barrel isn't as long, we're losing penetrative capability and effectiveness at extreme distances." Yang contemplated hat for a moment, before sighing and dropping back down into the tank.

"I guess you're right... oh well, I guess we'll just have to make do, huh? I'm sure the generals have a plan for taking out, or at least disabling, that Maus."

After a few minutes of idling about, the doors to their garage swung open, revealing Ruby in her full uniform, field visor and all. Yang and Weiss quickly rushed out and off the tank, lining up shoulder-to-shoulder and each giving a crisp salute as they'd been taught to do so.

"Achtung!" Ruby spoke loudly, and the two immediately stood at attention. Mercury, albeit slowly and unsurely, followed their lead and gave the younger girl a quick salute. "We've orders to get to better know our newest crew member, and get him acquainted with his job. We've already done the meet and greet, so how about you tell us a bit about yourself?"

"I hope you're not expecting a life story." Mercury quipped, though was only met with the shake of a head.

"No, but I do want to know what exactly you were doing with the White Fang. Are you a mercenary, freelancer, or some sort of anarchist?" Ruby inquired, stifling a small laugh out of the boy.

"You were closest with mercenary. No, I'm, well... was an assassin. I made a pledge to serve you with my life, but I'd rather not have it be a short life, so I can't really tell you who my employer was. Sorry." Mercury stated, and rested his hands behind his head.

"I see... well, I can respect that. I'm not gonna ask you to put your life in danger, at least not while off the field."

"Yeah, I gotcha. So, what about you? What, were you and the blondie born in this town or something?" Mercury questioned, and once more got a small shake of the head.

"No, we're a team of huntresses in training. Team RWBY, though now that we're a bit more than the standard 4 people, we'll just refer to ourselves as 'Crew Verteidiger' to avoid confusion. And that 'blondie' is Yang, my half-sister, and I suggest you get familiarized with our names."

"Right, right. I'd guess you're from... Beacon?"

"Bingo."

"Geez, that's ah... pretty far, isn't it?"

Ruby cast her gaze to the floor and let her arms hang as she tried to formulate the proper words. "Yes... it is. We tried getting a distress call through to Beacon about a month ago... but something is jamming our communications. Radios still work, but our Scrolls can't even call each other when nearby... the path out isn't clear, it'd be a suicidal run for just one tank, even a handful without proper, and finished training." Ruby said, looking up at her sister for a moment, before tipping her field visor and redirecting her gaze to Mercury. "Say, you wouldn't happen to know of any jamming equipment, would you?"

"Can't say I do. I do know that the White Fang has amassed a large amount of armor, and are building tanks themselves." Mercury revealed, getting an incredulous look from Ruby.

"They're making tanks?"

"I think so. Overheard a few of em talking about some hidden factories chugging out tanks from templates they'd found. The Maus, from what I can tell, is still one-of-a-kind, as well as the T28, but all the other, lighter tanks are being mass-produced, if what I heard is to be believed."

"Scheiße... das macht unsere Mission viel schwieriger... no matter. They may have quantity, but we have quality, and veterans to teach our crews how to do things right." Ruby stated firmly, before climbing atop the tank. "Get in, everyone. We're going out for a little practice."

They drove out to the fields outside the town, a large, wide and open space lying before them broken up by several trees here and there and snow as far as their eyes could see. Ruby, though not entirely bothered by the cold, put her wool gloves on and peeked her head out her tank's cupola. Der Verteidiger was halted atop the hill, looking out at the vast plains of white, and the burnt out wrecks of the tanks they'd destroyed not long ago. With a satisfied grin, she ducked back down into the tank, looking at Mercury a moment before gesturing for him to get in the gunner's position...

"Okay, Mercury, you're going to be learning how to cover every position. In the event that one of us should be knocked out or, Oum forbid, killed, YOU will need to cover that position. You'll need to learn how to load the gun, fire the gun, drive, or even fill in as Commander, at least to a basic degree. So, take the gun, and I will mark targets for you."

"This reticle makes no sense." Mercury deadpanned, getting an exasperated sigh from everyone else in the tank. Ruby had a feeling this would take awhile...

* * *

About five hours had passed, with Mercury getting a crash-course for every position. He'd say he liked being a gunner, mainly because he could blow stuff up, but he did also enjoy acting as a commander. Loading was a pain in the ass, but he managed, and driving, he'd found, was doubtless not his strongsuit. As a radio operator, he did find his task was a bit boring, though operating the machine gun was fun.

"Remember, short controlled bursts with the machine gun. You'll not melt the barrel as quickly, you'll retain accuracy, and you'll conserve ammunition. Only scenario I'd recommend holding down the trigger for a prolonged period of time is if there is a LOT of targets you're facing down, that are tightly packed. In that case, let rip with Hitler's Buzzsaw." Ruby said, patting her hand on the MG42's barrel.

"'Hitler's Buzzsaw'? I thought it was an MG42?" Mercury queried, slightly perplexed at the name change.

"Nickname given to the gun. Patton said that it was a common nickname given to the gun by allied nations during the war because of its cycling rate of 1,200 rounds per minute, the unique zipper-like noise it makes when firing due to that, and the high mortality rates this beast inflicted." Ruby answered, eliciting a small 'a-ha' from Mercury. "Oh, and one last thing about the machine gun: you don't need to pull the gun back or get out of the tank to remove the barrel. That little hatch on the side? Open it up and you can pull the barrel out the back and slide in a new one."

"Huh... ain't that handy... but why not just mix the barrel with ice Dust to prevent it from overheating?"

"This region doesn't naturally produce any." Weiss said. "Not mountainous enough, nor is this region cold enough year-round for it to form. Areas far north of here it forms, but that's White Fang territory."

"Anyways, getting sidetracked," Ruby cut back in, "the Generals have been planning a sort of breakout operation. They're still attacking two to three times a week, and we won't be able to hold out indefinitely, so we need to break out from this location, seize control of the coast two hundred kilometers east of here and the mountainous ranges fifty kilometers north of there. Though we can't just blaze through the lands from here to there, would be too easy to get cut off, isolated and wiped out."

"Well then, what's the plan for that tidbit?" Mercury asked, which made Ruby slightly bite her lip.

"Ah... er... well..." She started, trying to figure how to properly put the situation to words. "That's... where the problem lies. The ruined towns we'd obviously jump from town to town along the path, but then lies the issue of fortifying and occupying key points along the path East. We don't have the manpower, nor do we have the resources to hold those locations. The town also isn't wealthy enough to hire a mercenary company to support."

That last bit got the gears in Mercury's head turning. They had skilled enough forces to hold the locations, but not enough of them. Beacon would be of no help here, either, as these tanks were something else entirely, not that they could contact them anyways. Fighting tanks wasn't the same as fighting Grimm, or humans, or faunas. They changed the game, and their sudden appearance in the world he felt would usher in a new era of ground combat... but for now, he settled with knowing that in the food chain of combat hierarchy, a skilled tank crew was above huntsmen currently.

That being said, if they couldn't break out, they'd eventually die. They were already facing material shortages, so the situation would soon go from bad to worse... but a Mercenary company would solve the problem of personnel shortages... Well, not like he had anything better to do.

"I think I can help with that." Mercury states cooly, getting an intrigued stare from Ruby. "A company's commander owes me a few large favors. If I can convince him that those favors are big enough to merit his and his men's support, then we'll have the forces to punch through their blockade and hold the corridor for our armor."

Ruby turned around and put her hand to her chin, rubbing it as she contemplated on the offer. Eventually, she shook her head, a clear sign of denial.

"With that Maus enroute, we need to prioritize the defense of this town from the immediate threat. As good an idea as it sounds, we still have no way whatsoever of contacting them from here. That Jammer is still active somewhere." Mercury sighed in defeat. Of course, that Jammer was becoming an issue once again, and she was right about the Maus being the immediate problem.

"Ugh... well, I hope whatever you had in mind for the generals will be enough to turn the tide against that tank. If not, we're screwed."

"I... don't really want to destroy the Maus." Silence met her words, with this time, both Yang and Weiss looking at her incredulously.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but..." Yang started, the look of worry etched into her face. "Did you just say... you don't want to destroy the... the enemy?"

"Don't misunderstand me, the White Fang must face total destruction here... but we don't need to reduce the thing to a burning wreck to win the battle."

"...Explain, please?"

"No need." Weiss said. "I understand now... I think. Your plan is to disable the thing, and capture the tank like the Generals did with the T28, right?"

"Yes, that's exactly it. The White Fang, at least in the times they've attacked us, have never actively targeted our treads. I believe we can use this lack of knowledge to our advantage when pressing against them in the Panzer VIII, should we capture it." Ruby proclaimed, getting a shrewd grin across her own face, and Weiss and Yang sharing an expression like they'd just been handed the keys to the city...

* * *

Blake growled lightly as she missed the target a seventh time.

"No good. Loading another round." The spotter said, loading another round into the gun. Blake was getting better with the gun, but she'd been training with German optics, not American, damnit! That's what she was good with, what was familiar to her, this new one just threw her off.

"Ugh... can't we just put German optics on the 155mm? I seriously don't understand why we can't just do that..." Blake complained. The soldier just looked down at her with a disappointed look, before shaking his head.

"Lady, I'm gonna be real honest here... why the hell are you even here?" The man questioned, getting a confused look from the girl.

"What's THAT supposed to mean?" Blake said, narrowing her eyes and expecting some derogatory comment towards her being a faunas.

"I mean, why the hell are GIRLS serving in a military role? Shouldn't you be housekeeping or something?"

"Wha?!. The hell is wrong with you?!."

"Girls ain't allowed to join the military back home. War is a Man's domain, not a woman's." He stated matter-of-factly. Blake merely growled and gave him an unamused glare. "Oh. Real intimidating. I'm still wondering why the hell the Generals are bothering with training a bunch of girls for war."

"Ugh. Screw you." Blake stated angrily, looking back down the gun sights.

"I bet you'd love to! How's about ya take off than uniform and we can do it here and now, eh?" He said, revealing a toothy grin. Blake merely growled, and continued looking down the sight...

* * *

Patton was sitting in the garage next to Rommel, the two sharing some of Havana's finest. The day was coming to a close now, and the 155mm was almost complete.

The plan was that it would be finished overnight, and they'd mount the new gun and ammunition racks in the morning. A pretty solid plan, not being too complicated, not being too tall an order. It seemed that they might, just might, be enough to stop that Maus... but he had an inkling feeling that the destruction of that Maus was not what Rose had in mind.

"Well, Rommel." Patton started, taking a breath of the Cigar. "Come what may tomorrow, it's been an honor."

"Likewise, Patton. Unser nächster Kampf wird entweder der letzte oder der erste wahre Kampf vieler sein." The Field Marshal replied, mimicking the General's action with the cigar.

Their quiet was soon interrupted, though not quite in the literal sense, being how quiet the girl, Blake Belladonna, was. Rommel looked to Patton, who simply shrugged and nodded to Blake.

"Belladonna," Rommel addressed, "your training went well, I take it."

Blake nodded, but reluctantly. Rommel easily noted that the girl was rather upset, though he wasn't sure what for. Knowing tomorrow was do-or-die, of course, having their gunner's mind troubled was the absolute last thing they needed, lest it lead to utter disaster against the Maus...

"Ist etwas falsch?"

"Well... yes, Sir. I can't help but find it troublesome, some of the comments made by the gunner Patton assigned to help me... definitely on the sexist side... usually I have problems with racism, what, with the pointless hate of faunas, but never on my gender." Blake admitted, getting an unsurprised look from both Generals.

"Not surprising." Patton cut in. "These Americans and Germans aren't exactly from your world. Where we're from, women don't really do... well... military... Soviet Union being a slight exception. They're more domestic, like housewives."

"What, are you saying he did nothing wrong?" Blake said sharply, raising her voice.

"I said no such thing, and raise your voice or take that time with me again, we're gonna have some serious problems, Belladonna, ya hear?" Patton stated, forcing Blake to back down. "Now... whatever he said, I'm not saying he was in the right, but don't expect them to always treat you, or your team, like equals. That gunner helpin' you out was from Alabama, its difficult enough just getting him to be respectful towards colored individuals here, human or not. Just don't mind him, or the rest of our crews for now, and you should be fine."

"But... it's not right!"

"Irrelevant, fräulein." Rommel interrupted. "Continue to prove yourself, you'll earn their respect in due time... however, this being brought to light, an army can't operate effectively if its members can't even learn to work together and respect each other. I'll try to rein our crews in."

"I... thank you, sir." Blake stated, nothing else left to report on.

"Now... you're dismissed, Belladonna. Go rejoin your crew." Patton declared, dismissing the girl. Blake stood at attention, saluting the Generals, before breaking off and going to rejoin Der Verteidiger...

With the raven haired girl out of their hair, Patton laid back in the reclining chair, and looked up at the ceiling...

sigh* "I'm gonna need me a shot of whiskey before I deal with any more of this crap..."

"Sie und ich beide, Patton. Du und ich beide ..." Rommel answered, mirroring his action In reclining in his chair, more than ready enough for the day to end already...


	7. Onslaught: Part I

The night had finally fallen upon them in which they'd make their final, desperate stand against the White Fang's deadliest weapon. Needless to say, nobody was sure what to think, and nobody was REALLY sure just how things would play out. If they had more forces, more tanks, more resources, more time, then this battle wouldn't have been the worst either Rommel or Patton had seen in their lifetimes… but as it were, they were so few. Merely a few hundred infantrymen, a handful of field guns, none of which being strong enough to actually affect the Maus, a few artillery guns, their crews, four tanks, and a Superheavy Tank Destroyer. The only one with a gun strong enough to actually do anything to the Maus was the last one, and even then, the battle would begin before the Maus was inside it's effective range.

The radio chatter was sporadic, from scouts reporting the strength of the enemy force, other things of note, and officers ordering troops and supplies around. The three most consistent reports were of the White Fang attack force growing in numbers, something big just off the coast twenty kilometers away from their location, and large amounts of supplies being escorted along the coast to an unknown destination via railroad. They could only imagine just what it was they had in the water, and just what exactly they were transporting supplies to, though being completely honest, both Rommel and Patton had a good idea what they were, given the White Fang's apparent knack for acquiring superweapons.

 _"Scheiße… they're really pulling no punches, das ist sicher."_ Rommel sighed as he looked out from the cupola on his Panther out towards the growing mass of White Fang armor. " _I'm counting at least 300 panzers, not including the Maus and it's own heavy escort to boot."_

"300 tanks? Well, let's hope our tactical know-how and better experience will make the difference. These are good folks we're defending… though if those things in the background are what we think they are, things are gonna hit the fan real fast." Patton replied, before lighting his cigar and taking a second look at the enemy. "I've got a relatively clear line of sight on the escort. Looks like Tiger IIs, five of them…" He moved down into his tank, grabbing the radioman by his shoulder and leaning in to speak into the radio. "This is General Patton to the Ironhide. Ironhide, do you copy?"

 _"Loud and clear General. Belladonna is chewing some gum right now, rather loudly I might add, but we're all ready to do our part."_ The response from what sounded like a young boy came back.

"Relay orders to Belladonna, target the escort before you target the Maus itself. Der Vertediger lacks the firepower to punch through their frontal armor from the engagement distance, but you do."

 _"Yessir! I'll relay the orders down to her immediately!"_ And just like that, there was silence over the radio again. Sighing, he looked back over the cupola of his Sherman and over towards the location of the aforementioned tank. True, the Vk 4501 P was a beast of frontal armor, but what it really lacked was firepower. Don't mistake his analysis for bias, the 8.8 cm was a devastating gun against medium, light, and some heavy tanks, especially at long range from a concealed position… but the Tiger II's frontal armor was just too tough a nut to crack. Sure, precision fire to specific areas would still wreak havoc on them, but the conditions were far from optimal.

Then, after all that, if what was on the coast was indeed what he and Rommel thought it was, when the attack began, they were gonna be facing down some serious punishment. The guns from a normal battleship leveling down on them would be devastating, but this..?

"Rommel, this is Patton. Get over to Der Vertediger and commandeer the tank, have our boys on the ground scrounge together as much spare infantry ammo and equipment as they can and bring it up there."

 _"Was? Warum?"_ Came Rommel's response, though he shut up as soon as he realized what Patton had in mind. Within a minute, he saw forces back at the battlements racing to scrounge up what supplies they could spare and race it up to Der Vertediger's location.

That shape on the horizon, he was certain, it was a battleship, and he was fairly certain he knew just which one it was. He didn't wanna give it a chance to fire, and he knew that Rose was fast and skilled enough to make it to the ship and wipe out everything that moves before it can shoot… that being said, he also knew that the White Fang wouldn't take such an action sitting down. They'd throw a lot of bodies towards retaking the battleship, and he knew that against the full weight of the White Fang's manpower, even someone as skilled as her would not last long.

He sighed as he put the odds to thought, knowing well that this might just be sending her to her death. Make no mistake, he knew this was a suicide mission. She probably knew too. He always hated having to make such decisions, but he knew that he could command both the Panther and the Sherman without much issue, the crew in that Panther was also experienced enough to make decisions independently, Rommel is a far more experienced commander than Rose, so he knew he could command Der Vertediger better than she could, and with her being unnecessary to the course of this area of the battle, he knew that this would be the next best objective for her…

"This is Patton to Der Vertediger. Rose, Rommel is commandeering your tank, and troops are rushing to bring up as many supplies for your mission as they can spare." He ordered with a near monotonous voice.

 _"General, I'm not sure what you're saying. What mission are you talking about?"_ Rose replied with evident confusion in her tone.

"You're the fastest one here, the most skilled in gunplay for cqc. You're going to equip yourself with as much as you need, and then you're gonna board that battleship on the coast, and make sure it's guns stay quiet." He said, only getting silence on the other end for about a minute. Finally, he heard a sigh, followed by the Commander's monotonous voice.

 _"Yessir, I will prepare myself for the mission."_ He knew that she realized this would probably be her last. If they won the battle, they still wouldn't have the forces to hold a corridor to the coast, and that jammer was preventing them from receiving reinforcements. She'd be on her own, with no support, no backup. There'd be no escape route for her, in the midst of enemy territory with all guns trained on her. She knew this, and he knew that the mission had likely left her without any hope left… but the needs of many outweigh the wants of few.

 _"General, we've delivered all the supplies we could spare. She's preparing herself for her mission as we speak, and the Field Marshal has taken command of Der Vertediger."_ It was a Sergeant's voice, he thinks. He'd heard the man before, but shrug off the thought in favor of a simple 'thank you' in response before sitting back in his tank, wondering if this might be the last time he and Rommel see the girl they were sending off alive…

* * *

She knew that this was war, that sacrifices had to be made to achieve victory. She knew that eventually she'd be called to make sacrifices for it, perhaps even pay the ultimate price for it. She knew that this mission she was being assigned was of utmost importance, as even if they took down the Maus, the battleship could continue to bombard them, unaffected by the superheavy tank's defeat. There was no longer any objective more important than putting that battleship out of commission… but she knew what she was getting into. There would be no support, no reinforcements, no escape. She knew that against the entire might of the White Fang, she wouldn't last long. She knew that chances were, she would die aboard that battleship, alone, unsupported… she knew that as the chances stood, she wouldn't live to see her friends' victory.

It was a feeling that made her feel cold, almost feeling like she'd been betrayed in some way or another, even though she knew that was hardly the case… but Ruby had never imagined that her end would come in the form of a suicide mission.

" _Well… if I am to die today, I will deny them their battleship."_ She thought as she stuffed her bags with explosives, ammunition, all the equipment she could carry. She'd taken an MG42, a StG 44, an MP40, an M1A1 Thompson, an M1897 shotgun, her C96, an M1 Garand, several combat knives, a M1911, a M1903 Springfield, bountiful supplies of ammo for all guns, and a ludicrous amount of high yield explosive ordinance. Overkill? Perhaps, but if this was gonna be her final battle, she'd be damned if she didn't drag as many of the White Fang down with her as she could.

She knew it wouldn't do to exhaust herself before she even arrived, so, hopping on a R75 motorcycle they'd spared for her, she took off around the enemy with all speed, departing with little more than a small salute and goodbye to her friends…

* * *

Not five minutes had passed following Ruby's departure did they hear the distant gunfire, and they could only hope she made it to her destination, though upon order from the Generals, they refocused themselves towards the still-approaching mass of enemy tanks, still 300+ strong. With grit teeth, they lied in wait, ready to spring the trap. As soon as the enemy returned fire upon the Ironhide, the rest of the tanks and the battlements would open fire… though the enemy wasn't due to step into effective range for another ten minutes…

"Hmmm… just enough time for Rose to reach that ship, given the approximate speed of the R75… give or take another five or ten minutes on account of weather, enemy resistance, and the fact she's taking the longer, safer route…" Rommel mused, before looking out his cupola toward the ever closing enemy force. He'd be lying if he said the odds didn't phase him. Quite frankly, he, just as much as anyone else here, was rather scared. He, like Patton, was just a lot better at hiding the fact that he was scared. Unlike the boy and two girls in the tank, he wasn't shaking in his boots or anxiously fidgeting, but his eyes were glued to the incoming enemy force.

The tanks weren't the only forces in the brush. He and Patton had personally overseen a complex of man-made caves made through the surrounding hills, areas with dense foliage, that sort, and had several squads of soldiers armed and trained for tank-hunting lying in wait, with the extra firepower of a few 88mm field guns. He didn't intend to just face the White Fang with their own, tiny force of tanks. On top of all of that, they'd had what they dubbed "the vault" built beneath the town hall, and had all the civilians relocated there. It wouldn't be hard to blow through, but it would protect them if the fighting moved into the town.

"All forces, this is Field… nein, this is Rommel speaking. Make no mistake, this battle WILL get ugly, aber du bist bereit und unsere Feinde unterschätzen uns! Remember what you all fight for this day! We do not fight for honor, nein, this is not for glory, or even to make our foes bleed. We fight because this is our home! We fight because this land is ours, and they are thrice damned invaders who wish to kill us, rape and murder our women and children! We fight so that all we have worked so long and hard to build might stand another day! We fight so the sacrifices of those who've already paid the ultimate price to get us this far will not have been in vain! Wir kämpfen, weil dieses Land uns gehört! Reißzähne raus! Brüder! Schwestern! Wir werden heute keine Niederlage kennen! Stell dich zu uns, stell dich zusammen und vertreibe diese Dämonen zurück in die Hölle, wo sie hingehören!" He yelled into the radio, and immediately heard reinvigorated cheers of jubilee and confidence from over the radio and reverberating from the battlements in response to his speech. It would be just it time for the true battle, as upon looking back out his cupola, he saw the Maus and it's escort had entered well within the T28's effective range.

Looking out of his cupola, he looked over to the location of the Ironhide. It was tucked into a fine little sniping position well above the battlefield, and was angled just so that any incoming fire would only hit the most densely armored locations, and it in turn would have an unobstructed killzone with the whole of the enemy force in its sights.

 _"Belladonna, the White Fang do not advance in any coherent way, rather a massive mob of armor. Ignore the numbers, and focus on the Panzerkampfwagen VIII and it's escort. You're cleared to fire at will, do us proud._ " Patton's voice resounded over the radio, and sure enough, within two seconds, the flash of her barrel and the crack of a 155mm shell firing split the night, with it one of the five Tiger IIs being consumed in a ball of flames as it ground to a halt. The first strike resounded through the night, and battle had begun.

"She detonated the ammunition rack! Tolle!" He exclaimed with wide eyes, before shielding his eyes as the combined weight of 300 guns flashed towards the Ironhide, consuming the entire area in a great cloud of smoke and dirt.

 _"This is Ironhide, our tracks are out but our armor is holding strong! Reloading the 155mm, give us 10 seconds!"_ With that, Rommel nodded down to Mercury, who gave a thumbs up before yelling into the radio.

"All forces, fire at will!" He yelled, before popping back up into the gunner's position and leveling with a distant panzer IV. With a nod from the Field Marshal, he took the shot with a High Explosive shell loaded, striking the engine behind the turret and rendering the tank useless.

At the same time, several other guns from the tree line flashed, each one halting or destroying a tank, before the battlements in turn joined the firefight, their massive guns pounding the field and scattering the enemy even worse, even if not claiming many kills.

Observing the field more closely, he watched as two Matildas met their end, the guns from his own Panther and Patton's Sherman making short work of the inferior tanks. He grimaced. Though the battle might be looking good initially, this firefight hadn't lasted a minute yet, and they'd only destroyed four tanks total outside of the escort, with the other hits all being either bounced off or just disabling something.

They'd just loaded in the nick of time to take another shot before backing up, just barely managing to back up enough to mitigate the volume of incoming return fire that actually struck their armor. The round ripped through a Chaffee's frontal armor with ease, the APHE (Armor Piercing High Explosive) shell detonating within the tank and killing the whole crew in a single shot. Rommel gave Mercury a nod of approval, before motioning for Weiss to bring them back into position.

"Black, your priority list for now stands: Target Medium and Heavy Panzers excepting the Escort." He said, and as if on cue, another Tiger II was struck, exploding in the same incredible fashion as the first one.

 _"This is Patton. I have my Sherman and your Panther prioritizing medium and light tanks, and the Panzer IV is providing fire support to our boys in the brush. Fifteen seconds until the enemy has entered their effective range, twenty five until they've reached the minefield."_ He said monotonously, before they watched his tank back up to avoid incoming fire, a 122mm just barely grazing the front of his tank. _"Additionally, while I can't make out exactly what's going on, I see small flashes aboard the battleship. Rose has boarded the ship, I repeat, Rose has boarded the battleship."_

The declaration brought them all a small sigh of relief, though all present wiped away the momentary feeling in favor of resuming their part in halting the onslaught…

* * *

She had to ditch the R75 as she sped off the cliff towards the ship she could now clearly make out the name of. It was named Bismarck, and easily dwarfed any Atlesian capital ship she'd ever seen. She was pleased as she kicked off her motorcycle to get the extra distance and make the jump onto the ship as it looked like she'd caught the Fang completely off guard. Breaking into a roll as she landed, she leveled her StG 44 on the few hapless terrorists before her, before spraying them with lead.

The five Fangs fell down with unison screams as they were riddled with bullets, each shot easily punching through their weak auras and ripping apart their organs, their blood swiftly washing off the decks with the storm's waves. Not paying them any heed, she hopped over their bodies while reloading and stowing the sturmgewehr back on her back in favor of the shotgun, before ducking into the ship and blasting a confused crewman in the face. His head practically evaporated into a cloud of red mist, and the wall behind him looked as though someone threw a bucket of red paint at a spot.

She didn't waste any time, setting a trap on the doorway, before bolting down the hall, mercilessly blasting her boomstick at anyone who dared cross her path. Not fifteen seconds after bolting, she heard a loud explosion back from where she came, accompanied by gurgled screams from the trap's victims. Turning a corner, she deftly ducked under a dust blade, before lunging up and striking her assailant under her chin with the butt of her gun, yanking a knife out from her harness and slashing her across the abdomen, and following the strike up with a swift stab into the girl's heart.

Hearing footsteps from behind, she twisted the blade and spun the dying girl around, using her as a huma- faunas shield as four dust rifles blasted her back to pieces. Dropping her empty shotgun for a moment, she swiftly drew her C96 from it's holster and blasted the few fangs that had come around behind her, ending the fight with one shot to each Fangs' temple.

"No pity, no remorse. My friends are depending on me, and I don't care how many of these damned terrorists I have to kill if it means my friends live to fight another day!" Ruby though as she ripped her blade out of the fang, bashing the girl down with her shoulder before holstering the knife and her C96, almost picking up the boomstick before hearing more footfalls further down the hall from both ways.

Gritting her teeth, she yanked her Thompson and MP40 out, one in each hand, before letting rip down the corridor, the sharp roar of the guns letting loose eliciting agonized screams as another eight of the crew fell down, blood gushing from their many wounds, some instantly killed by a lucky shot to the head or heart. Sighing, she quickly dropped the empty magazines and reloaded, before stowing them and finally retrieving her M1897, reloading it as she brought it back to shoulder, and dashed once more down the corridor.

It didn't take long for her to find the first area for a gunnery crew. She couldn't quite enter, due to the defense they'd set up, but after pulling the pin and tossing a frag grenade inside, all there was to do was finish off the remaining injured. Growling as she felt one Fang grab her ankle, she turned around and kicked the boy in the face, before stepping over him and kicking his head at just the right angle to snap his neck. She would say she felt awful for ending so many lives so quickly, for so mercilessly butchering anyone who got in her way… but that would be a lie. For now, all she saw was red, and everyone around her was nothing more than another target…

* * *

 _KABOOM!_

Another tank blew up in a cloud of fire as it rolled over one of the magnetic mines, the others among the horde swerving around it with little care for the loss. Patton gulped as they continued on, still just as fast as ever despite what losses they'd already suffered. The Escort for the Maus had been torn to ribbons under the weight of the T28's attacks, and that left only the Maus itself.

Further away, Der Vertediger was preparing another round, this one an AP shell with the intended target being a Tiger I's engine. The enemy force was scattered, with no evident formation, but still formidable. Rommel knew, however, that even with all their guns, the enemy would stand a chance in hell at scratching the Maus if they commandeered it… Rose's idea in that regard was a risky one, one with a high chance of failure… but the potential payoff was just far too great to ignore.

 _"This is Ironhide, the escort has been neutralized. Field marshal, the Maus is our target now, anywhere specific you want us to put these shells?"_ The boy's voice came back once more across the radio, getting a nod out of him.

"Relay the orders to the Ironhide, hit their tracks first and immobilize them, then destroy their turret ring." He ordered calmly, and Black relayed the order before climbing back up to operate the gun. Looking back out towards the incoming enemy force, he grit his teeth. Despite what losses they'd inflicted upon their enemies, there was still over 280 left, and the Ironhide was no longer their only priority target.

He'd heard reports that the Panzer IV had to retreat for emergency repairs. From what little he saw as they were retreating, he had to say, he was genuinely surprised that the Panzer hadn't exploded yet. Never before had he seen a Panzer moving at all after such damage…

 _"This is Lieutenant Mira, enemy infantry are advancing through the forests behind us. We're diverting troops to deal with them."_ Rommel swore under his breath at that, before looking back towards the battlements. They were battered, but holding strong. He supposed the situation could be worse, after all, they were finally starting to crack the enemy's ranks. Now, it'd only be a matter of time before this whole situation blew-

 _ **KABOOOOM!**_

His eyes widened in horror as something struck the center of the town, raising a massive explosion that rattled the battlements and washed over them with a massive shockwave.

"Scheiße! Lieutenant Mira! Panzer IV! Report! What just happened?!." He yelled into the radio himself, his composure temporarily broken.

 _"Artillery fire! Massive Artillery! It must've been a-_ " She was cut off by another three rounds striking the town, each one's explosion markedly smaller, yet still massive. _"Sir, this is second Lieutenant Peterson. Lieutenant Mira has been knocked unconscious, and we're rushing her to the medical bay right now. We're trying to figure out just what hit us, but the Panzer IV isn't responding."_

"Dammit… Don't bother, I know what just hit us, and it doesn't take a genius to guess what's become of the Panzer IV." Rommel said, punching the side of the turret.

"Sir… what just hit us? Don't tell me… It couldn't have been-"

"The first one was, beyond a shadow of a doubt, exactly what you think it is, Schnee." He growled, before looking back out his cupola towards the town. "The Schwerer Gustav…"

* * *

 ** _A/N: HELLO MY CHILDREN! No? Eh, was worth a shosh._**

 ** _SO, sorry about this taking so long. It's been done for awhile, just forgot to upload... well, that, and the fact that looking back at it now, I read through it and wasn't quite satisfied. Since last I updated this, I've been rather busy, and eventually I kinda forgot this story was actually here. I actually was just reminded that I had it when a guest reviewed telling me to update not that long ago soooo... yeah. Sorry about that folks. Anyways, here's the finished product._**


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